Heavy Minerals and HM Research Associates

Heavy Minerals are diagnostic indicators of sandstone provenance, and provide crucial information on sediment transport pathways, sand body distribution and palaeogeography. Heavy minerals are also useful guides to the extent of burial diagenesis of reservoir sandstones.

Stratigraphic changes in heavy mineral assemblages enable the construction of a heavy mineral correlation framework. Heavy mineral stratigraphy can be used to complement biostratigraphic methods or as a stand-alone method in barren sequences such as continental red beds.

HM Research Associates are the leading provider of heavy mineral provenance and stratigraphic services to the petroleum industry. The company has extensive experience of heavy mineral studies of clastic reservoir sequences throughout the stratigraphic record and in sedimentary basins around the world. The company also has a strong commitment to research on heavy mineral assemblages in sandstones, and to development of new heavy mineral analysis techniques.