| Why perform analysis onsite? |
To save money:
- assay fees, shipping fees – save about $1 million per year on the analysis of 50,000 samples @$30 per
- improve turnaround from 1-3 months to 1 to 5 days, delays equal ?$$
- monitor mine processes real time – rapid response can save several million $
- perform ore specific metallurgical testing – improper testing may contribute to suboptimal recovery over significant periods of time
Modules cost about $50,000 each and include:
- 8 x 40 foot container with insulation, doors, walls, floors, windows, ducting, vents, basic electrical, lights, paint, plumbing, equipment services
- materials used and layout are specific to the application
| How much does equipment cost? |
Equipment is provided at cost.
| What other costs are there and how much are they? |
Cost plus 25% (module and equipment)which includes:
- installation of equipment, accounting, shipping and receiving, storage, yard-space, insurance, design, documentation, schematics, ISO certification, fork lift, machine shop, management
| Why not build the lab yourself? |
“Reinventing the wheel” in an attempt to save money will probably prove to be difficult and costly because:
- @ $170K for 3000 sq. ft. of properly engineered facilities, there is little fat
- development costs for Seacan were several hundreds of thousands of dollars
- budgets for technologically sophisticated onsite projects are normally in the millions $
- many technologies and expertises are required and are not normally available in the field
| Who designed the mobile laboratories? |
A geochemist with assistance from:
- an industrial architect, a fire assayer and equipment suppliers
| Tell us something about equipment used. |
From experience, the design team choose the best, most robust equipment known.
- the basic philosophy here is that downtime is normally much more expensive than the price differential between mediocre and excellent equipment
| Is all the equipment new? |
Yes.
| How long does it take to manufacture and install a prep and assay lab? |
Four months.
- three months to acquire equipment and manufacture
- one month to crate, ship and install
| What other services and products does SeaCan offer? |
Lab software (LIMS), training onsite, assay methods, compliance with ISO, safety requirements, etc.
| How are facilities heated / cooled? |
Industrial air conditioner / heat units.
- proprietary air return systems allow for energy efficiency, clean air, temperature stability and vacuum avoidance
| What kind of materials are used in the lab? |
Materials used are known to be very durable and cost effective for the given application.
- for example, high grade stainless steel is the metal of choice for benches. Polypropylene and PVC are used for wet chem surfaces and fume hood respectively
| How is dust, lead or fumes exhausted? |
Blowers, bag houses, acid scrubbers.
| Is there a central electric room and does each piece of equipment have its own breaker, starter and disconnect with lock out capability? |
No, but the client may provide electric service to a single box and simply connect each module feed to it.
Given onsite line power, this process takes about 30 minutes.
- each module has its own breaker box, with 110-220-440 single and three-phase
- each piece of equipment has its own breaker, disconnect with lock out capability
| What LIMS system do you use? |
LIMS: Labtool – specific to commercial geochemistry applications. Ask for a demo.
| What kind of sample preparation equipment do you use? |
TM Engineering – crusher, pulverizer, dryer, splitter
| What kind of analytical instruments are available? |
AAS * ICP-OES * ICP-MS * X-Ray Fluorescence (call) * Spectrophotometers various
| Can your fume hood handle perchloric acids? |
Yes.
- fumehood is equipped with a wash down, scrubber system and air return system (proprietary)
| How do you deal with vibration caused by equipment such as crushers that might affect instruments and damage the facility? |
Pneumatics (proprietary)
- directly installed on any regular floor, a crusher will vibrate extremely violently damaging the floor, walls and equipment
- pneumatics reduces vibration effectively to zero
| What are the makes and models of the fire assay furnaces? Do they include spare elements and hearth plates? |
Anachemia "Williams & Wilson" MAS-3 with spare hearth plates
| What methods are provided? |
Industry standard methods (used by BC Assayers) for assay and “geochem”.
- Ag and Au by Fire Assay with AA and gravimetric finish
- multi-element digestion for geochemical/assay for base metals and other elements, ore specific assay methods
| What warranty do you provide with the facility? i.e.: equipment and performance? |
1 year warrantee on all Seacan manufactured components, equipment vendor warrantees are transferred.
| What training services are provided? |
Sample preparation and assaying.
- training and performance guidelines are based on BC certified assaying standards.
- certified reference materials are prepared from clients ore, client assays should achieve industry standard quality
- i.e. similar to those found in round-robin studies of reputable laboratories
| How many samples per day can this facility can process? |
Assume 150 x 5 kilo sample @ <5% moisture, ¼” to 5” material, pulverizing 600 grams samples
- Two prep lines are capable of 30-40 samples per hour given 600g samples
| Do you guarantee air quality at the crusher and pulverizer work stations will meet international work place standards? |
Yes.
- air quality meets EPA guidelines, which comply with international work place standards
| Does the air discharging the lab from the fume hoods and dust collection systems meet World Bank Standards? |
Yes, discharge comply with EPA regulations, which comply with World Bank standards, fume hoods meet US Standard ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 110-1995
