BISMUTH CONTENT OF ELECTRUM FROM MONGOLIAN ARTISANAL/SMALL-SCALE MINING SITES

Bismuth (Bi) content of electrum from Mongolian artisanal/small-scale mining sites was determined by micro-PIXE at CSIRO. This is to provide artisanal/small-scale miners information on the valuable trace element in electrum which they recover from quartz veins. The analysis was done using a 3 MeV micro-beam (30 micrometer in diameter) with an aluminum filter of 125 micrometer thickness. The result showed that electrum grains from the study area contains Bi with a range from 0 to 2,530 ppm.