The Reynolds Cup is a biannual round robin contest for quantitative mineralogy of the Clay Minerals Society. In this contest, both commercial and research laboratories can test the accuracy of their quantitative mineralogical methods. Each participant receives 3 samples which consist of mixtures of pure mineral standards.
In 2016, Qmineral won the contest by submitting the most accurate results in competition with 82 other laboratories from 25 different countries. Qmineral achieved the 1st position overall and submitted the most accurate result for the carbonaceous shale sample RC62 ! As shown in the table below, our accuracy for non-clay minerals is around 1% or better. The error on the individual clay species is better than 3%.
Since our first participation in 2012, Qmineral has always finished in top 6. Over the years, our team invested in the continuous improvement of preparation and interpretation methods. After the 6th place in 2012, Qmineral ended in 5th position in 2014 and two years later Gilles and Rieko acquired the 1st position in Reynolds Cup competition.
In 2018, Qmineral organised the Reynolds Cup competition and prepared 3 test samples which were sent out to 83 participants from 28 countries. The samples were prepared as pure mineral mixtures representing the fine fraction of an evaporitic deposit, a weathered marine deposit and a carbonatite deposit.
The Reynolds Cup is sponsored by the Clay Minerals Society and the German-Austrian-Swiss Clay Group (DTTG). Leftover samples are available for sale on the Source Clays page of the Clay Minerals Society.
