SGS LABORATORY REPORT

BY
EMMANUELKWABENA ASAMOAH

NATIONAL SERVICE PERSONNEL

ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Objectives

 To have an insight of the various activities that goes on at the laboratory.

 To know how employees or workers collaborate to increase productivity at the

work place.

 To know how environmental, health and safety issues are being managed in the

laboratory.

1.2 Vision of the Laboratory

SGS aim to be the most competitive and the most productive service organization in the

world. Their core competencies in inspection, verification, testing and certification are

being continuously improved to be best-in-class. They are at the heart of what they are.

Their chosen markets will be solely determined by their ability to be the most competitive

and to consistently deliver unequalled service to their customers all over the world.

1.3 Values

They seek to be epitomized by their passion, integrity, entrepreneurialism and their

innovative spirit, as they continually strive to fulfill their vision. These values guide them

in all that they do and are the bedrock upon which the organization is built.
 Health and Safety Policies

SGS laboratory services at Akyem, mainly uses hazardous chemicals and other

equipment which can be injurious and for that matter health and safety is of higher

priority, therefore they say” if the work is not safe don’t do it “and safety should be

personal.

Furthermore, it is every individual’s responsibility to prevent, identify and report

anything that can undermine safety in any form at the work place. Safety is always

ensured if there an avenue for creating awareness and this has made SGS incorporated

health and

safety talk as part of its induction program for new employees and visitors. SGS has an

assembly point where workers assemble with immediate effect when there is an outbreak

of fire or any other cases which calls for emergency assembly.

An emergency shower is at the laboratory where personnel can wash down when there is a

Chemical spillage on the body.

2.1 General Health and Safety Guidelines

Below are the general safety rules and regulations to ensure safety at the lab.;

 Wear personal protective equipment at all places where required.

 safety signs are to be obeyed.

  Inspect tools and equipment before use.

 workers should be aware of any potential hazard at the various sections.

 Extractors must be switched on before work commence.

 Use of alcohol, drugs or other illegal substances is prohibited.

2.2 Environmental Safety Guidelines

All visitors and workers at SGS must comply with the SGS Environmental Management System

and the specific requirements include:

 Trash, rubbish and food waste must never be thrown to the ground but be deposited in

designated rubbish bins.

 Cyanide solutions and other reagent wastes must be disposed off properly.

 Any faulty extractor must be reported and repaired immediately.

 Chemical spillages should be cleaned properly.

NB: There is a tailings impoundment facility which stores cyanide and other reagents waste

solutions temporally.
SGS Process and Structure

Sample Preparation
 Filtration and
Drying
 Sample Splitting
and Pulverizing

Weighing and flux

Fire Assay

 Prills digestion
Wet Chem
 Solvent Extraction
 Carbon Ashing and
digestion

Atomic Absorption
 Reading of aqueous and
Spectrometer -AAS
organic samples,
(Instrumentation
 Room)
Preparation of standard
solution.
SAMPLE PREPARATION
Sample preparation encompasses all the various processes the samples go through in order to get

the pulverized material for further work. Sample preparation processes includes;

 Sorting

 Arrangement of samples trays or kalypo bags on bench and labelling

 Filtration and Drying

 Crushing and Splitting

 Milling / Pulverizing

 Matt Rolling and Bagging

SORTING

Sorting is done by arranging the labelled samples systematically or sequentially at a convenient

place according to the idents on the “Job Sheet”.

FILTRATION AND DRING

Filtration is done on Tank profile and plant samples in order to separate the liquid from the solid,

thereby helping to know the percent solids of the samples. The solids obtained after filtration is

then dried. Geological samples undergo normal drying in the oven at a temperature of 105℃.

Drying is to remove the physically bonded water or liquid to solid. Samples arrived can be very

wet, wet or near dryness and that means almost every sample goes through
the drying process before any other work is done. The samples are dried with different duration

depending on the moisture content .

EQUIPMENT

 Trolley

 Sample Trays

 Oven with temperature controller

 Infra-red thermocouple

CRUSHING AND SPLITTING

Crushing is a comminution process which encompasses the disintegration of large particles into

smaller ones for further work or convenience in transport. Basically, we have primary, secondary

and tertiary crushers. Over here, single toggled blake jaw crusher is use for both primary and

secondary crushing of samples but the sets and the models are different.

The jaw crusher works analogous to how the human jaw operates, however, it has a movable part

and a fixed part. The movable jaw is pivoted at the top end suspending on an eccentric. Rotation

of the eccentric causes the movable jaw. As the boulders go into the crusher, the movable jaw

hits the boulders against the fixed jaw causing them to breakdown. The set of the BOYD crusher

with RSD is 2mm (its efficiency is grinding to 75% passing 2mm screen size).

FACTORS THAT CAN AFFECT THE EFFICIENCE OF THE CRUSHER

 wear of the jaw plate : When the jaw plate wears, it decreases the throw of the crusher

thereby allowing larger particles into the collector

  loosen of the fixe jaw adjustable nut : The vibration of the crusher in operation usually

causes the nut at the fixed jaw to be loosen and this can lead to coarser particle passage.

Splitting : Is the process of dividing samples into equal parts depending on the weight required.
It helps to achieve a sizable material to work with.
GRINDING

Grinding is the final stage of comminution designed to reduce the particle to a size fine enough

to complete liberation of the valuable minerals or produce material of a high surface area for the

subsequent hydrometallurgical treatments. At SGS, LM2 pulverizer is use in milling of the

mineral samples. Grinding/milling can take place in several ways including;

a. Impact or compression due to forces applied almost normally to the particle surface.

b. Abrasion due to forces acting parallel to the surface

c. Chipping due to oblique forces

MATT ROLLING AND BAGGING

Matt rolling in this section is the mixing of the pulverized sample on a square rubber matt to

form a homogenous mixture. Bagging is done by scooping a representative portion of the matt

rolled sample into a well labelled sample bag for analysis. After bagging, some of the bagged

samples are sent to either Fire assay, Wet-Chem or Met-Lab department for various analysis

to be done depending on the information given.

GEOLOGICAL SAMPLES PROCEDURES.

 Sort samples out to identify all defects ( torn bags, over weigh , among others) in other to

avoid swapping and abnormality.

 Scan samples into the excel sheet.

 Weigh samples and capture weight into the system (excel)

 Arrange samples in sequential order on the trolley.

 Dry samples at 105 ±5℃ in the oven.

 Cool down samples and check for effective dryness using the spatula before crushing.

 Crush samples following the corresponding idents on the envelope.

 Transfer crushed samples into the splitter ( RSD).

 Collect one of the receivers ( approx. 1000g) for pulverizing.

NB: Samples with duplicates, the two upper splited samples are to be taken separately and

should match with the corresponding idents on the envelope.

 Pulverized all 1000g samples and bag approximately 250g for fire assay.

NB: Barren rock or blanks to be crushed after every 10 crushed samples.

 Crusher checks to be done as demanded.

CRUSHER CHECK

 Weigh app. 200g of crushed sample

 Transfer into 2.0mm sieve and sieve till no more samples passes through ( Dry Sieving ).

 Weigh the remaining sample in the sieve.

EXPECTATION : 90% passing 2mm.

NB : Repeating numbers means crusher checks.

PULVERIZER CHECK

 Weigh approximately 100g of pulverized / milled sample.

 Transfer into 75 μm sieve and sieve till no more samples passes ( Wet Sieving)

 Dry the remaining sample.

 Take the weight of the dried remaining sample.

EXPECTATION : 95% passing 75 μ.

TANK PROFILE PROCEDURE