simón and gosson-quality control reporting requirements

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by A. Simn and G. Gosson

Quality control reporting requirementsby the mining industry

Quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) arethe two major components of any qualitymanagement 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 qualityrequirements, and QC refers to the system of activities to verify if the quality controlactivities are effective. While QA deals with prevention of problems, QC aims to detectthem, in the event that they occur.

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

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

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

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

The resource databaseQA/QC: This program should be concerned with, but notlimited to data verification, drill sample recovery, sample size, sample preparation,analytical methods, the use of duplicates/blanks/standards, effects of multiple periodsof data acquisition and consistency of interpretation in three dimensions.

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

Page 1 of 3CIM 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-ployedand 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 theassay certificates commonly include the results of at least some of the internallaboratory QC. However, laboratories will commonly reveal those checks that passtheir internal controls, but not the failures. Results of batches that fail laboratory QCare 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 acceptableperformance, rather than a direct measurement of the quality. Independentmeasurements of the data quality are typically poorer than the QC reported by thelaboratory because they detect some instances of poor performance that slippedthrough the laboratory QC. How different these results are depends upon how

effective the laboratory QC was at eliminating poor performance. Thus the external QCprovides an assessment of the efficacy of a laboratorys QC, as well as an independentassessment 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 bylaboratories generally considered to be professional. Regardless of the intentions oflaboratory management or laboratory owner management, the incidence of poorsample preparation practices and unreported blank, duplicate, and Certified ReferenceMaterial (CRM) failures is actually higher than commonly acknowledged.

Quality control in the real world

AMECs experience with numerous recent audits and due diligence studies conductedon projects in South America, Asia, Africa, North America, and Europe (many of themmanaged by North American and Australian exploration and mining companies)indicate that comprehensive geological quality control programs are still infrequent. Outof 26 projects from South America and Europe audited or reviewed by AMEC between2003 and 2007, only four had established QA/QC programs that would allow precisionand 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 halfof the consulted SEDAR-filed technical reports.

Although the overall cost increase of the implementation of a QA/QC program isrelatively 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 diligenceproviders for investment banks in support of a finance, junior and major companiesshould be increasingly interested in implementing effective QA/QC programs.


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Confidence in the analytical data mandates it.

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

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