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by A. Simn and G. Gosson

Quality control reporting requirements
by the mining industry

Quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) are
the two major components of any quality
management system. According to ISOs definition,
QA is the assembly of all planned and systematic actions necessary to provide
adequate confidence that a product, process, or service will satisfy given quality
requirements, and QC refers to the system of activities to verify if the quality control
activities are effective. While QA deals with prevention of problems, QC aims to detect
them, in the event that they occur.

In practical terms, geological quality control procedures are intended to monitor
precision and accuracy of the assay data, as well as possible sample contamination
during preparation and assaying.

NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects requires exploration and mining
organizations with Canadian investors to report their QA/QC program. The relevant
sections are as follows.

Section 3.3 of NI 43-101 Requirements Applicable to Written Disclosure of
Exploration Information: The issuer (company) must include a description of the quality
assurance program and quality control measures applied during the execution of the
work being reported on.

Section 1.5 of Companion Policy 43-101CP provides guidance to a qualified person
classifying a mineral deposit as a mineral resource or mineral reserve to follow the
Estimation of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Best Practice Guidelines
adopted by CIM. The section relevant to QA/QC in those guidelines follow.

The resource databaseQA/QC: This program should be concerned with, but not
limited to data verification, drill sample recovery, sample size, sample preparation,
analytical methods, the use of duplicates/blanks/standards, effects of multiple periods
of data acquisition and consistency of interpretation in three dimensions.

Item 15 of Form 43-101F1 Technical Report Sample Preparation, Analy-ses, and
Security. Describe sample preparation methods and quality control measures
employed before dispatch of samples to an analytical or testing laboratory, the method
or process of sample splitting and reduction, and the security measures taken to
ensure the validity and integrity of samples taken. Include:


Page 1 of 3 CIM Bulletin September / October 2007, Volume 2 No. 6
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A summary of the nature and extent of all quality control measures em-ployed
and check assay and other check analytical and testing procedures utilized,
including the results and corrective actions taken.

A statement of the authors opinion on the adequacy of sample preparation,
security, and analytical procedures.

Internal lab procedures

Competently managed laboratories have their own internal QC protocols, and the
assay certificates commonly include the results of at least some of the internal
laboratory QC. However, laboratories will commonly reveal those checks that pass
their internal controls, but not the failures. Results of batches that fail laboratory QC
are re-run, and the re-run results, along with new passing QC results, are reported.
Thus the laboratory QC provides a picture of what the laboratory considers acceptable
performance, rather than a direct measurement of the quality. Independent
measurements of the data quality are typically poorer than the QC reported by the
laboratory because they detect some instances of poor performance that slipped
through the laboratory QC. How different these results are depends upon how
effective the laboratory QC was at eliminating poor performance. Thus the external QC
provides an assessment of the efficacy of a laboratorys QC, as well as an independent
assessment of the data quality.

AMEC regards sole reliance on the internal laboratory QC as unacceptable practice.
This has been proven by AMECs direct experience in revealing deceptive practices by
laboratories generally considered to be professional. Regardless of the intentions of
laboratory management or laboratory owner management, the incidence of poor
sample preparation practices and unreported blank, duplicate, and Certified Reference
Material (CRM) failures is actually higher than commonly acknowledged.

Quality control in the real world

AMECs experience with numerous recent audits and due diligence studies conducted
on projects in South America, Asia, Africa, North America, and Europe (many of them
managed by North American and Australian exploration and mining companies)
indicate that comprehensive geological quality control programs are still infrequent. Out
of 26 projects from South America and Europe audited or reviewed by AMEC between
2003 and 2007, only four had established QA/QC programs that would allow precision
and accuracy to be properly assessed.

Additional evidence comes from a recent review of industry QA/QC practices in NI 43-
101 technical reports. AMEC could not find relevant details on QA/QC programs in half
of the consulted SEDAR-filed technical reports.

Although the overall cost increase of the implementation of a QA/QC program is
relatively small, usually not exceeding one to two per cent of the total exploration costs,
the percentage increase to the assay budget evokes a negative response by the cost-
conscious company.

As a result of disclosure standards in place and the expected scrutiny by due diligence
providers for investment banks in support of a finance, junior and major companies
should be increasingly interested in implementing effective QA/QC programs.
Page 2 of 3 CIM Bulletin September / October 2007, Volume 2 No. 6
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Confidence in the analytical data mandates it.



Published in CIM Magazine
September / October 2007, Volume 2 No. 6

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Page 3 of 3 CIM Bulletin September / October 2007, Volume 2 No. 6
23/02/2012 http://www.cim.org/bulletin/bulletinlive/articles_print.cfm?Issue_ID=151&Type=1&row...