Quality

• Quality
• • Analyte Definitions
  • Analyte Groups
  • Special Samples
  • Result Types
  • Sampling Templates
  • Specifications
  • Quality Assumptions for Transactions

MineMarket tracks the mass transferred as well as the quality of material through the supply chain.

The various objects to be configured for quality tracking are analyte definitions, analyte groups, special samples, result types, sampling templates, and specification definitions.

Using the sample template assigned to a material flow, you can create samples for each transaction or movement to record the quality at that point of the supply chain. Contract fulfilment may also require an assay exchange, when buyer and seller laboratory results are compared.

Analyte Definitions

An analyte is a specific substance or chemical constituent that is being analysed or measured in a sample. For example, analytes measured to assess the quality of coal may include calorific value, moisture, ash, and sulphur content. For copper concentrates, analytes are copper, sulphur, iron, gold, silver and other elements.

Analyte Groups

Analytes can be grouped based upon a logical commonality between the different analytes. The analytes in an analyte group can be placed in a specific order that is preserved when the analyte group is used. Analyte groups are primarily used for reporting purposes or for defining analytes for specification templates.

Special Samples

Special samples are samples that are recorded but are not associated with a transaction, and hence their results are not downstreamed. Special samples can be used to define the default sampling conditions for various processes (for example, weekly testing of specific items like new packages or truck oil, testing for the quality of consumable items used in various processes). The sample category is effectively a template that defines the list of analytes that are to be entered for a special sample in this category.

Result Types

A result type is the type of analytical result for a sample; that is, the method of analysis used to determine the quality of material. In MineMarket, you can define different result types, each with a higher or lower level of confidence relative to the other result types. Where multiple result types are available for a transaction, MineMarket always uses the result type with the highest confidence.

Sampling Templates

A sampling template is a generic, reusable template for a set of analytes that have a common result type. You can use sampling templates to create sample templates for process flows, discrete unit movement flows or packing process flows.

Note: A sampling template is not the same as a sample template. Although sample templates can be created from sampling templates, only sample templates are assigned to specific material flows.

Specifications

A specification template defines generic specifications that are used when creating product or brand specifications. Specification templates can define only the analytes (without any specification limits) or full specification limits for the analyte values: minimum, lower warning, upper warning, maximum, and target. For each product or brand, contract product, quota or despatch order, individual analytes can be added to the specification and the specification limits can be edited.

Quality Assumptions for Transactions

When material is moved to a stockpile or loaded on a despatch, the quality is not always known from samples. Assumptions can be made about the quality of the material in the new location based on the history or ancestry of the material.

When you define a material flow, you can configure a base assumption type for overall quality and optionally, for specific analyte values. Quality is calculated using the specified assumption type until sample data is entered.

See Material Flows.