Abstract: The object of this invention is a method for determining ore contents of drill cuttings by irradiating and by detecting fluorescence radiation and scattering radiation. According to the method, drill cuttings being essentially immediately retrieved from the drill hole is arranged as a layer, the upper surface of which is at least partly free from water, a statistically sufficiently representative defined area of the layer is irradiated and the fluorescence of the irradiation is measured for element-characteristic intensities and for Compton-scattering or coherent scattering intensities. The element-characteristic intensities are corrected using coefficients empirically defined from Compton-scattering and/or coherent scattering in order to compensate for the damping due to the coverage effect of water.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and an equipment for determining the content of an element from a flowing sample mass (1) by utilizing x-ray fluorescence, in which method the sample mass (1) is irradiated with x-ray or gamma radiation; the radiation emitted by the sample mass is detected; an energy-dispersive radiation spectrum of the radiation emitted by the sample mass is determined; and the content of the element is determined from the measured radiation spectrum on the basis of the intensity of the radiation spectrum window characteristic of this element.