Multi-sensor analysis of complex geologic materials

1. A system for analyzing an unknown mineralogical sample, the system comprising:

at least two analytical subsystems including a near-infrared spectral-analysis subsystem to obtain molecular information about the mineralogical sample and at least one other analytical subsystem to obtain elemental information about the mineralogical sample, so each of the at least two analytical subsystems provides different information about the mineralogical sample;

a data collection component to collect and combine the molecular information and elemental information from the analytical subsystems to create combined analytical information as a set of data vectors in a combined database;

a chemometric calibration model that includes a set of vectors that relate mineralogical attributes to molecular and elemental information previously generated with at least two analytical systems that are the same types of systems as the at least two analytical subsystems;

a prediction engine that multiplies the set of vectors in the chemometric calibration model by corresponding data vectors in the combined database to produce predictions of mineralogical attributes in the unknown mineralogical sample; and

a display to display the predictions produced by the prediction engine.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least two analytical subsystems are integrated within a single housing.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least two analytical subsystems are discrete and separately operable units.

4. The system of claim 1 , including a network connectivity component to couple the chemometric calibration model with a remote chemometric calibration database.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the mineralogical attributes are selected from the group consisting of elemental attributes, molecular attributes, mineral content, and metallurgical attributes.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one other analytical subsystem is a technology selected from the group consisting of X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Raman, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR), Quantitative Evaluation of Minerals by SCANing electron microscopy (QEMSCAN), Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) analysis, Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES), and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS).

7. A method for analyzing an unknown mineralogical sample, the method comprising:

obtaining an unknown mineralogical sample;

analyzing the unknown mineralogical sample with at least two mineralogical-property analytical subsystems to obtain two sets of analytical data, a first set of the analytical data including molecular information about the mineralogical sample and a second set of the analytical data including elemental information about the mineralogical sample;

collecting the two sets of analytical data to form combined data as a set of data vectors in a combined database;

identifying attributes of the unknown mineralogical sample by multiplying a set of vectors in a chemometric calibration model by corresponding data vectors in the combined database to produce predictions of mineralogical attributes of the sample, wherein the calibration model is derived from data collected from analytical systems that are the same types as the analytical subsystems; and

displaying the predictions of the mineralogical attributes.

8. The method of claim 7 including:

obtaining the chemometric calibration model from a remote location via a network.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein analyzing the unknown mineralogical sample includes analyzing the unknown mineralogical sample with a near-infrared spectral-analysis subsystem to obtain data indicative of a molecular content of the mineralogical sample.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein analyzing the unknown mineralogical sample includes analyzing the unknown mineralogical sample with an analytic technology that provides an indication of elemental content of the mineralogical sample.

11. A non-transitory, tangible processor readable storage medium, encoded with processor readable instructions to perform a method for processing analyzing an unknown mineralogical sample, the method comprising:

obtaining an unknown mineralogical sample;

analyzing the unknown mineralogical sample with at least two mineralogical-property analytical subsystems to obtain two sets of analytical data, a first set of the analytical data including molecular information about the mineralogical sample and a second set of the analytical data including elemental information about the mineralogical sample;

collecting the two sets of analytical data to form combined data as a set of data vectors in a combined database; and

identifying attributes of the unknown mineralogical sample by multiplying a set of vectors in a chemometric calibration model by corresponding data vectors in the combined database to produce predictions of mineralogical attributes of the sample, wherein the calibration model is derived from data collected from analytical systems that are the same types as the analytical subsystems; and

displaying the predictions of the mineralogical attributes.

12. The non-transitory, tangible processor readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the method includes obtaining the chemometric calibration model from a remote location via a network.

13. The non-transitory, tangible processor readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein analyzing the unknown mineralogical sample includes analyzing the unknown mineralogical sample with a near-infrared spectral-analysis subsystem to obtain data indicative of a molecular content of the mineralogical sample.

14. The non-transitory, tangible processor readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein analyzing the unknown mineralogical sample includes analyzing the unknown mineralogical sample with an analytic technology that provides an indication of elemental content of the mineralogical sample.