Quality Digest recently featured Inorganic Ventures in the article, “Beyond the Pit: Why Laboratory Integrity Now Shapes Mining Viability,” highlighting the growing role analytical accuracy plays in the future of mining operations.
The article examines how mining companies are operating under increasingly narrow economic margins as lower-grade deposits and complex rare earth materials become more common. In these environments, analytical data is no longer just a supporting fun
Global Mining Review recently featured Inorganic Ventures in the article, “Beyond the Pit: Why Laboratory Integrity Now Shapes Mining Viability,” highlighting the growing importance of analytical precision in modern mining operations. (
Elemental impurities in pharmaceutical products are not a theoretical concern—they are a patient safety issue with well-documented toxicological consequences. The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) classifies arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg) as Class 1 elements, often referred to as the “Big Four.” These four elements are considered the highest-priority impurities because of their toxicity, prevalence in nature, and potential to contaminate raw materials, excipients, and finished drug products.
Published by Inorganic Ventures | Sample Preparation & Analytical Standards
In elemental impurities testing, the analysis is only as good as the sample preparation that precedes it. A perfectly calibrated ICP-OES or ICP‑MS system will produce unreliable data if the sample has not been fully digested, if volatile analytes have been lost during preparation, or if contamination has been introduced through reagents or labware.
Microwave-assisted digestion in sealed, pressurised vessels has become the standard sample preparation t
We’re excited to share that Inorganic Ventures was recently referenced in a Labcompare article exploring the growing importance of laboratory integrity in the mining industry.
Elemental analysis by ICP-OES and ICP-MS is only as reliable as the sample that reaches the plasma. For the majority of analytes, properly acidified solutions remain stable for months or even years, and standard digestion protocols deliver quantitative recoveries without incident. However, a subset of elements—those that form volatile compounds, adsorb onto container surfaces, or exist in unstable oxidation states—can be partially or completely lost before the sample is ever measured. When this happens, the instrument reports a number that is precise, reproducible, and wrong.
The elements most susceptible to these los
Cyanide-based leaching remains the dominant method for extracting gold and silver from ores. Since the development of the MacArthur–Forrest process in 1887, the selective dissolution of gold in alkaline cyanide solutions has underpinned precious metals recovery on an industrial scale (Wikipedia: Gold Cyanidation). The chemistry is elegant in its selectivity: gold dissolves readily in dilute cyanide solutions under alkaline conditions to form the remarkably stable dicyanoaurate(I) anion, [Au(CN)₂]⁻, while most gangue minerals remai
Platinum-group metals (PGMs), including platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, and osmium, along with gold, represent some of the most valuable elements analyzed in modern laboratories. Yet despite their importance in mining, metallurgical, and environmental applications, these precious metals present unique analytical challenges that can expose weaknesses in sample preparation, calibration strategies, and instrument performance.
Unlike base metals, PGMs form strong coordination complexes, exist in multiple oxidation states, and interact readily with instrument and vessel surfaces. These characteristics manifest as slow signal stabilization, persistent memory effects, drifting baselines, and inconsistent recoveries, particularly when measuring trace levels in
In elemental analysis laboratories, few topics generate more confusion, or more critical impact on data quality, than detection limits. The terms Instrument Detection Limit (IDL), Method Detection Limit (MDL), and Limit of Quantitation (LOQ) appear throughout standard operating procedures, regulatory documents, and laboratory reports. Yet they're frequently misunderstood, miscalculated, or used interchangeably when they represent fundamentally different concepts.
Understanding what each limit truly represents, how it's calculated, and how everyday laboratory practices influence achievable sensitivity is essential for generating defensible data. Whether you're troubleshooting sensitivity issues, optimizing a new method, or training analysts, clarity on these concepts builds confidence in low-concentration measurements
High total dissolved solids (TDS) matrices can cause signal suppression/enhancement, drift, and poor reproducibility in ICP-OES and ICP-MS. Matrix-matched standards reduce this bias by matching, as closely as possible, the chemistry of the standards to the chemistry of the samples. Custom CRMs help by locking in acids, dissolved solids, and element groupings under controlled, documented conditions.
Mining samples rarely arrive in a clean nitric acid matrix. After digestion or leaching, labs often end up with solutions that contain high acid and high TDS. Dilution is a common workaround, but it isn’t always possible, espec
