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Oil, Gas & Mining vocabulary · Exploration & Geology

Assay

Meaning in oil, gas & mining, with examples

/ˈæseɪ/nounCommon term

In oil, gas & mining, assay means: A laboratory test that measures how much gold, copper or another metal a rock, soil or concentrate sample contains.

In Turkish: analiz, kimyasal analiz, tahlil

How it is used

Also a verb: to assay a sample. Exploration companies wait for assay results and announce them to investors. Common methods are fire assay for gold and acid digestion with ICP analysis for many other metals. Quality control uses blanks, duplicates and standards.

Example sentences

  1. Assay results from the last ten drill holes are expected next week.

  2. Each metre of core is split, and one half is sent to the lab for assay.

Common collocations

  • assay results
  • fire assay
  • assay lab
  • assay a sample
  • pending assays
  • gradeThe amount of valuable metal or mineral in a rock, usually given as a percentage (for copper) or in grams per tonne (for gold and silver).
  • core sampleA long cylinder of rock cut out by a hollow drill bit and brought to the surface so geologists can study and test the rock as it was underground.
  • depositA natural concentration of a mineral, metal, coal, oil or gas in the earth that may be large and rich enough to be worth mining or producing.
  • concentrateThe main product of a processing plant: a powder in which the valuable mineral is much richer than in the original ore, ready to be sold or sent to a smelter.

More terms: Exploration & Geology

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