Analytical Fingerprint (AFP) for tantalum, tin and tungsten ores
Begin of project: January 1, 2006
Status of project: January 1, 2021
Since 2006, an analytical proof of origin for tantalum, tin and tungsten ores has been developed by the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR). Within the framework of a project of the German technical cooperation with Africa this method shall be put into practice now. The analytical proof of origin, also called Analytical Fingerprint (AFP), is used to verify the documented provenance of tantalum, tin or tungsten ore concentrates.
Polished section of a tin ore concentrate showing laser ablation spots resulting from the geochemical analysis
Source: BGR
Tantalum, tin and tungsten ore concentrates are the products of small as well as semi-industrial mining and are traded locally, regionally and internationally. In Central Africa, violent conflicts are partly financed by the illegal trade and smuggling of these ore concentrates. Traceability of the trade with ore concentrates (certification of trade chains of mineral resources) intends to curb the trade of so-called "conflict minerals" and thus to curb funding of violent conflicts by ore concentrates from conflict areas. The analytical proof of origin is an additional forensic tool that can be used if doubt arises on the origin of an ore concentrate in the course of monitoring trade.
The analytical proof of origin is based on the analysis of characteristically geochemical, geochronological and mineralogical properties of ore concentrates. Subsequently the results can be compared to data of ore concentrates from known mines stored in a database. It is checked to what extent the investigated ore concentrate has similarities to ore concentrates originating from the mine indicated in the accompanying documents.
Literature:
Gäbler, H.-E., Schink, W., Gawronski, T., 2020. Data evaluation for cassiterite and coltan fingerprinting. Minerals, 10, 926. – URL https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/10/926
Martyna A., Gäbler H.-E., Bahr A., Zadora G. (2018) Geochemical wolframite fingerprinting – the likelihood ratio approach for laser ablation ICP-MS data. Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 410, 3073-3091. - URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00216-018-1007-9
Gäbler H.-E., Schink W., Goldmann S., Bahr A., Gawronski T. (2017) Analytical fingerprint of wolframite ore concentrates. J. For. Sci. 62(4), 881-888.
Gäbler H.-E., Rehder S., Bahr A., Melcher F., Goldmann S. (2013) Cassiterite fingerprinting by LA-ICP-MS. J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 28, 1247-1255.
Gäbler H.-E., Melcher F., Graupner T., Bahr A., Sitnikova M.A., Henjes-Kunst F., Oberthür T., Brätz H., Gerdes A. (2011) Speeding up the analytical workflow for coltan fingerprinting by an integrated mineral liberation analysis/LA-ICP-MS approach. Geostand. Geoanal. Res. 35(4), 431-448.
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