Laboratory services whether On-site or off-site are a niche technical area that requires specific expertise, as they provide critical operational, metallurgical processing, metal accounting, environmental, fuel and lube oil data that guide the site activities as well as establishing the value of the products produced. Thus making outsourcing of mine-site laboratory inevitable as it ensures that mine house’s operations benefit from world-class expertise and services, enabling the mine to focus on their competencies while ensuring that analytical data received is accurate and consistent.
The laboratory services are evolving, with sample preparation being done underground, reducing the turn-around time, providing accurate results, cost savings, and thus allow greater control for the mine, explains Kevin Gerber, Managing Director Set Point Laboratories.
Outsourcing mine-site laboratories, allows the client to focus on their core competencies while ensuring that the analytical data received is accurate and consistent. Set Point Laboratories ensures that all on-site laboratories established meet the clients specific requirements and that these laboratories are managed and operated with same levels of quality and efficiency as their commercial laboratories, adds Gerber.
Set Point Laboratories with a vision of becoming laboratory of choice in Africa, are an ISO 17025 accredited chemical analytical laboratories. With facilities in South Africa and Botswana, Set Point Laboratories offers services ranging from full testing laboratories to setting up and operating on-site and mobile laboratories which require specific expertise and experience. In addition, they offer testing on PGM’s & Gold, Uranium, Water as well as the coal testing laboratory in Mokopane.
Underground Laboratory – Improving turnaround for sample analysis at PMC
Closer monitoring of ore copper concentrations is imperative to ensure output is maximised and sustained from the current operations to the envisaged new mining level.
Therefore Palabora Mining Company (PMC) awarded Set Point Laboratories the contract to manage and operate its underground laboratory as they wanted to reduce assay and sampling costs, as well as improve the turnaround time for sample analysis as this is critical in production decision-making for the mine.
The lab has the capacity to analyse 450 samples (9 Tonnes of Copper ore) per week. When functioning at full capacity, only 56kg of sample is brought to the surface daily for XRF analysis as opposed to 1800kg daily, when there wasn’t an underground lab. The 56kg of sample is easily carried by the operators to the surface section. This alleviates the logistical issues that were involved when transporting 1800kg from underground to the mine’s chemical laboratory.
“Since it was established the laboratory has successfully reduced the turnaround time from more than one month to 72 hours, allowing the client to focus on their core competencies while ensuring that the analytical data received is accurate and consistent,” explains Gerber.
The regular consultation between the onsite laboratory and the mine makes it easier for queries to be addressed immediately resulting in improved customer service.
For quality control purposes, 10% of the mine’s samples are reanalysed at Set Point’s main laboratory for comparison.
As a value add, Set Point Laboratories have conducted Quality Assurance and Quality control training for the benefit of geologists, operators and samplers involved with the underground laboratory.
THE LAB OF CHOICE IN AFRICA
The company which has a water laboratory specialising in the analysis of ground, surface, drinking, waste and process water also a provides an outsourced or managed mine and on-site laboratories in Mozambique and Gabon and a well-established laboratory in Botswana.
Set Point Laboratories was awarded the contract to set-up and manage a Chemical Analytical Laboratory in Namibia on behalf of Swakop Uranium for a period of at least 3 years.
Set to be fully operational in October 2015, the laboratory will offer a full qualified service spectrum with various techniques such as XRF, ICP and Wet Chemical analysis of geology, run of the mine and plant samples up until the production of U3O8 for Husab Mine.
Husab Mine will be the second largest uranium mine in the world when it reaches full production capacity, and it will bring a significant increase of the uranium production output for Namibia.
Leaders in their respective industries, Set Point Laboratories are reputable in the mining industry, and are pleased to be part of this new ground-breaking adventure that presents the people of Namibia with great economic growth.
