MA-1b Certificate of Analysis

Certified Reference Material: Gold Ore

Printable version of the certificate(PDF, 1.11Mb)

First Issued : December 1990
Version: November 1995

Description

MA-lb is a sample of ore from the Macassa Mine at Kirkland Lake, Ontario. The major mineral constituents of the ore matrix are quartz, feldspar, and dolomite, with minor amounts of muscovite, chlorite and pyrite. Chalcopyrite, sphalerite, hematite, magnetite, altaite and melonite are present in minor to trace levels. Gold occurs mainly as native metal or electrum (alloy with minor silver constituent) mainly as inclusions in the siliceous matrix but also in pyrite. Calaverite (AuTe2) occurs as inclusions in some pyrite grains. The approximate chemical composition of MA-lb is given in the Table.

The ore was dry ground and sieved. The -74 µm fraction was blended and bottled in 200-g units. The stock was sampled systematically and analysed by fire assay/gravimetry (FA/G) and fire assay/ atomic absorption spectometry (FA/AAS) procedures to demonstrate sufficient homogeneity of gold for application as a compositional reference material.

Certification

The recommended value for gold is the unweighted mean of 175 accepted analytical determinations by 28 laboratories. The uncertainty is the estimate of the expected range of reproducibility of this mean with 95% probability, if the measurement program was to be repeated many times. This estimate assumes the results are a sampling from an ANOVA Model ll statistical model.

Results by method classifications are compiled in the Table, where FA refers to fire assay preconcentration, ICPAES refers to inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry, INAA refers to instrumental neutron activation analysis, and other symbols are described above. CI is the 95% confidence interval for the mean and SLc and Src the between- and within-set standard deviations obtained from the ANOVA. CV is the average within-set coefficient of variation. The median within-set replacation was 5 and the median sample weight was 15g.

Legal Notice

The Canadian Certified Reference Materials Project has prepared this reference material and statistically evaluated the analytical data of the inter-laboratory certification program to the best of its ability. The purchaser, by receipt hereof, releases and indemnifies the Canadian Certified Reference Materials Project from and against all liability and costs arising out of the use of this material and information.

Reference

The preparation and certification procedures used for MA-lb are given in CANMET Report which will be made available free of charge on request.

For further information

CCRMP, Canmet Mining 
555 Booth Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0G1
Canada

Telephone: 343-543-6830
E-mail: Contact CCRMP

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Recommended Value and 95% Confidence Interval

Constituent	oz/ton	µg/g
Au	0.497 ± 0.008	17.0 ± 0.3

Approximate Chemical Composition

Constituent	wt %
Si	24.5
Al	6.11
Fe	4.62
K	4.45
Na	1.49
S	1.17
C (total)	2.44
H2O- (100°C)	0.1
LOI (1000°C)	7.9
Ag	4 µg/g
Au	17.0 µg/g*

* Certified value