Abstract
We performed computational and experimental studies of the feasibility of the gold bearing ore assay utilizing the Au-197(gamma,n)Au-196 photonuclear reaction. Gold bearing silicate samples were irradiated using bremsstrahlung produced by an electron accelerator with endpoint energies ranging from 25 to 40 MeV. Au-196 yield simulations were benchmarked and experimental results were in good agreement with the predictions. Optimum electron beam energy for photon activation analysis was found to be around 32 MeV which corresponded to a detection limit of 80 ppb. Two-hour gamma-spectroscopy measurements were repeated every 24 h and the optimum sample cooling time was found to be about 100-160 h.