MALAWI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND APPLIED SCIENCES

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF MINING ENGINEERING

PROGRAMME NAME: BACHELOR OF GEOLOGICAL ENGINEERING

COURSE CODE: MEN-MRG-221

SUBMITTED TO: MR I MALAMBO

SUBMITTED BY: ALBERT MALIRO BGEN/20/SS/013

MPHATSO MAJOR BGEN/19/SS/025
MANUEL LUCIOUS BMMP/19/SS/024
NUMERI CHISALE BMMP/20/SS/002
JACKSON PHILLIP BMMP/19/SS/018

VANESSA MATEWERE BMMP/20/SS/011

KELVIN NJERWA BMMP/20/SS/016
RIAZ SIDAT BMMP/19/SS/039
WILSON CHIRAMBO BMMP/20/SS/001

DUE DATE: 4 OCTOBER 2022

 TITLE: IDENTIFICATION OF MINERALS UNDER TRANSMITTED LIGHT
MICROSCOPE

PURPOSE: To Identifying Minerals Under Transmitted Light Microscope in Thin Section

HYPOTHESIS:

Having meta-gabbro, Quartzo-feldspathic granulite, Biotite-quartz feldspar gneiss as

these are all rocks and by definition, a rock is an aggregate of minerals. So it is expected
that after the experiment we may find certain minerals in the specified rocks as follows:

meta-gabbro: calcium-rich plagioclase feldspar (usually labradorite or bytownite) and

pyroxenes (usually augite). Minor amounts of olivine might also be present in the rock

Quartzo-feldspathic granulite: The most common minerals are quartz, potassium feldspar,
and sodium feldspar. Smaller amounts of muscovite, biotite, and hornblende are common

Biotite-quartz feldspar gneiss: creamy-white feldspar and quartz, together with dark
minerals

MATERIALS:

Meta Gabbro, Quartzo-feldspathic granulite, Biotite-quartz feldspar gneiss

Grinding cutting machine GEOFORM 102

Automatic polishing machine (Forcipol 101)

Hotplate

Transmitted light microscope

Glass plate

Epoxy

PROCEDURE:

STEP 1; Cutting A Slab

 A suitable size slab for mounting on a slide is cut from a piece of rock using a
Grinding cutting machine Geoform 102 machine to 80 microns. The machine
contains a grinder which is used to reduce the size of the rock which is fixed to
two clamps on the base of the rock. The clamps are connected to a handle which
helps the user to move the rock against the grinder until the desired size is
achieved (80 microns)

STEP 2; Mounting A Slab

The next step is to take the 80 microns slab and glue it to a piece of a glass slide.
The piece of rock is glued with epoxy.

STEP 3; Polishing

The glued slide and slab are then taken to the right-hand side of the Geoform 102,
to be polished and reduced the thickness further from 80 microns to 50 microns.
On the other side, the two pieces are placed against a tube which sucks the glass
to allow the two pieces to be intact when polishing the rocks to 50 microns

STEP 4; Further Polishing

The two pieces are then taken to another machine known as an Automatic
polishing machine (Forcipol 101). The two-piece is tightly fixed to the upper part
of the machine. Then the lower part is set to rotate. Upon the rotation of the lower
part, it reduces the size of the slab to 30 microns due to the sandpaper-like
material under it.

STEP 5: Placing The Slab On the Microscope

After all the stages of preparing the sample, the slab is then placed on the
microscope stage for analysis.

Observation and Data

Microscopic work is no longer the primary analytical methodology in petrology that it once was,
it remains a valuable tool in the study of rock texture and mineralogy. It is also a great way to
gain a better understanding of the nature of textures and minerals than can be achieved by
looking at hand samples alone.

The main use of the microscopic method is intended to practice a basic utility in the use of the
petrographic microscope for general (non-analytical) purposes for the identification of minerals
and the interpretation of textures. basic knowledge of common rock-forming minerals and their
properties, particularly properties of cleavage, color, and opacity. properties of refractive index
and interference colors, which can be readily looked up.

basic interpretations of the textures of igneous and metamorphic rocks, particularly aphanitic and
phaneritic textures, porphyritic textures, reaction rims (coronae) and other reaction textures,
euhedral and anhedral textures, and other basic elements of rock interpretation.

1. Analysis of Biotite-quartz feldspar gneiss

Figure 1: Biotite quartz feldspar gneiss at 0 degree in ppl

 A. this is either ore mineral or anisotropic; this is because they are opaque as they
do not allow light to pass through them hence the black color at every angle as
well as in crossed polar.

B. This is olivine; because it shows moderately high relief; high interference colors
fracture rather than cleavage often faint green color in plane light (for forsterite).
C. It can be analyzed as Quartz because of its low refractive index, low relief Low
interference colors (usually white or pale yellow) no cleavage, may show fracture
(curved, or non-parallel cracks) often equant (meaning roughly the same length in
each direction) clear and colorless in plane light
D. this mineral is hornblende because it is usually strongly colored in plane light
(browns, greens common) and commonly pleochroic 2 cleavage planes at angles,
not 90 degrees The extinction angle is not parallel to either of the two cleavage
planes (the plane light is vibrating nearly horizontally in the thin sections shown
in these exercises--so neither of the two cleavage planes will be vertical or
horizontal at extinction)

E. Plagioclase (Wollaston) because it seems to have a low refractive index, low

relief, low interference colors (usually white in most cases), cleavage in 2
perpendicular directions common polysynthetic twinning colorless in plane light
in the thin section often lath shaped (long, narrow, rectangles)

2. Analysis of Meta-gabbro
Figure 2: Meta gabbro at 30 degrees ppl

Figure 3: Meta gabbro at 90 degrees ppl

A. Antipelthide; this is because they have parallel lamella, low negative relief, perfect
cleavage in one direction, less perfect in the others; first-order grey interference colors,
simple Carlsbad twinning; can occur as part of exsolution features composed of
orthoclase and albite lamellae (perthite, antiperthite)

B. Quartz; because of its low refractive index, low relief Low interference colors (usually
white or pale yellow) no cleavage, may show fracture (curved, or non-parallel cracks)
often equant (meaning roughly the same length in each direction) clear and colorless in
plane light

C. Albite; this is so because it has a double twinning parallel to each other, on top of that
they mirror each other concerning the twinning axis.

D. Ore mineral or anisotropic; this is because they are opaque as they do not allow light to
pass through them hence the black color at every angle as well as in crossed polar.

E. Olivine; usually green to yellow when observed through plane polarized

F. Mesoperthite; possess worm-like features (exosolutions lamella), which are regions of

weak bonds, they also have perfect cleavages.

G. Microcline; when observed through ppl they have cross exosolution lamellas.

3. Analysis of Quartzo-feldspathic granulite

Figure 4: Quartzo-feldspathic granulite in xpl
A. Ore minerals; this is so because they are opaque and hence appear to be black index xpl
as they do not allow light to pass through them.

B. Andalusite; they show zonation, which indicates a series of crystallization, they also
have a slightly greenish color,

C. Aluminum silicate (Kyanite); is defined to be so as it contains crystals with parallel

exosolution.

Conclusion
These lab experiments investigated the properties of rocks in thin sections under a
transmitted light microscope. To study the rocks, we had gone through the steps of sample
preparation from cutting the rock up to the stage where we placed the sample at the
microscope stage for analysis. The results showed that the rocks contain aggregates of
minerals that have different optical properties, which showed and proved that our hypothesis
was correct. We believe the results are accurate because we observed the different minerals
in the specified rocks under study. To further investigate this experiment, next time we would
like to use an advanced microscope in observing the properties of ore minerals which
appeared not to show any color but black.
References
Bladh, K. W., Bideaux, R. A., Anthony, M., & Nicholos, B. G. (2001). handbook mineralogy. Chantilly:
mineral data publisher.

Colson, R. (2021, April 4). Mineralogy-Petrology--Thin Sections- Part 1-Mineral identification. Retrieved
from mnstate.edu: http://web.mnstate.edu/colson/ESE2/Mineralogy-Petrology-Thin_Sections-
Part_1/Mineralogy-Petrology-Thin_Sections-Part_1_print.html

Nesse, W. D. (1991). Introduction to optical mineralogy. New York: Oxford University Press.

Optical Mineralogy. (n.d.). Retrieved from open geology: https://opengeology.org/Mineralogy/5-optical-

mineralogy/

Optical mineralogy: some terminology - Geological Digressions. (2021, October 19). Retrieved from
Geological Digressions: https://www.geological-digressions.com/optical-mineralogy-some-
terminology/