Jaw crushers are available for crushing rocks and other geological samples. Various mills (vibrating disc mill, McCrone mill) are available for further processing, which pulverize the granulates for further analysis.

In order to dissolve minerals from its compound that are suitable for radiometric dating and to get rid of their adhesions in the best possible way, the stone is ground several times with the jaw crusher and the roller mill. The minerals suitable for the chosen dating methodology are separated using density differences, magnetic properties and grain shape. Subsequently, the millbase is sieved; the finer grain fraction is of interest for further processing.
The Wilfley wet-shaking hearth …

The Geochemistry Group manages a mineral separation lab to obtain minerals for geochronology and geochemical studies. The lab includes a ceramic plate jaw crusher, ball mills, a Frantz Magnetic Separator (separation of minerals according to magnetic susceptibility), sieves, and heavy liquids for density separation.

In the rock crushing room, rocks are crushed and powdered using a variety of tools, e.g. sieve machine, agate vessels for disk mill, jaw crusher, Wilfley table, rock mill, disc mill.

The section is well equipped for rock crushing, sieving and milling, preparation of thin and polished sections and grain mounts, and mineral separation by gravimetric and magnetic methods. We maintain central facilities and equipment for cleaning, crushing, sieving and grinding rock samples, both for preparation of homogenized whole rock powders and for the production of mineral separates. Whole rock powders (grain sizes < 62 μm) are typically used for X-Ray diffraction (XRD), X-Ray …

The sample preparation laboratories provide facilities to prepare geological samples for a wide range of analytical methods. These include mineral separations for geochronologic analysis, mineral powders for geochemical analysis and polished thin sections for microscopy.