Classical Assay for Small Scale Miners, Prospectors, and Hobbyists: Part 5 - Basic Atomic Theory

In parts 1 through 4 of this series, “Classical Chemical Assay for Small Scale Miners, Prospectors, and hobbyists”. I discussed the topic of “qualitative analysis”. This topic focused on the determination of what elements or metals of interest that may reside in your samples. It did not touch on the concentration, that is the amount of element or elements within your sample, such as grams per tonne or percent per tonne etc. Before going forward and discussing the topic of “Quantitative Analysis”, which is the determination of concentration, there are a few items that requires discussion beforehand. In part 5, the discussion will be limited to basic atomic theory. I will try to discuss this in a way that will be understandable to anyone that does not have a chemistry background.