It's clear that you do understand physics, @Comfortably Numb. (My undergraduate degree is a B. Sc. with Hons majoring in Physics, for what it's worth. (Note that it's not a BS degree )) Having thought about how similar this is to mass spectroscopy (electron excitation) then I think that some sort of x-ray/gamma-ray spectroscopy, based on nuclei excitation, will be the norm in the future and complicated assays that require cooking/cupeling/leaching of the sample, or whatever other alchemy required, will be a thing of the past. I also think it is pretty clear that once the photon assay method is refined further, other PGMs could be assayable as well.
)) Having thought about how similar this is to mass spectroscopy (electron excitation) then I think that some sort of x-ray/gamma-ray spectroscopy, based on nuclei excitation, will be the norm in the future and complicated assays that require cooking/cupeling/leaching of the sample, or whatever other alchemy required, will be a thing of the past. I also think it is pretty clear that once the photon assay method is refined further, other PGMs could be assayable as well.
