PIXE MICROANALYSIS OF AN ANTIMONY MINERAL, STIBNITE

For the purpose of establishing an effective exploration model of antimony deposit as a final goal. minor elements in stibnite ( Sb 2 S 3) were analyzed by micro-PIXE. Samples were taken from the largest antimony mine in the world. Xikuangshan. Hunan. China. Measurements were carried out using 1 MeV proton to avoid the problem where low energy tail of K X-ray peaks of antimony could mask small peaks of interest. As a result. arsenic at a concentration of around 0.2 wt % was successfully detected for the stibnite crystals that contact calcite but not those that contact quartz.