Abstract

Heavy minerals are typically rare but important components of siliciclastic sediments and rocks. Their abundance, proportions, and variability carry valuable information on source rocks, climatic, environmental and transport conditions between source to sink, and diagenetic processes. They are important for practical purposes such as prospecting for mineral resources or the correlation and interpretation of geologic reservoirs. Despite the extensive use of heavy mineral analysis in sedimentary petrography and quite diverse methods for quantifying heavy mineral assemblages, there has never been a systematic comparison of results obtained by different methods and/or operators. This study provides the first interlaboratory test of heavy mineral analysis.