Independent audits of plants, flowsheets and processes.
Our principals have designed, commissioned and operated commercial hydrometallurgical plants on three continents. We bring that experience to the review of operating plants, process flowsheets, feasibility studies and technology claims, and report plainly on what works, what does not and what it will take to put it right.
What we audit.
Every audit is built around a question someone has to act on: why a plant falls short of design, whether a flowsheet will scale, or whether a process is worth the investment.
Performance and metal accounting
Recovery, throughput, reagent and energy use are measured against design and against what the chemistry allows. Losses, chronic upsets and bottlenecks are traced to their cause, and the metal balance is checked from feed to final product.
Fit for the next decision
Testwork, mass and energy balance, equipment sizing and the cost basis are reviewed for consistency and scale-up risk, at scoping, pre-feasibility or feasibility level. We look for the gaps that otherwise surface as overruns.
Vendor and licensor claims
Before a process is bought or licensed, its claims are tested against the chemistry, the data behind them and the plants we have seen succeed and fail.
For investors and lenders
An independent technical opinion on a processing asset or project, written for a board, an investment committee or a lender, with the risks stated plainly and, where possible, quantified.
When an audit is worth doing.
The most common reasons we are asked for an outside view:
- Recovery or throughput below design Plant
- Reagent or energy consumption creeping up Plant
- A metal balance that does not reconcile Accounting
- A new feed, or a change in the current one Flowsheet
- A study heading to a board or financing decision Study
- A process offered for purchase or licence Technology
How an audit runs.
Scope
What must the audit answer?
We agree the questions, the boundaries, and the data, site access and people needed. Most audits begin with a review of the records before anyone travels.
Review and site work
What is actually happening?
Data analysis, a plant walkdown, and interviews with operators, metallurgists and maintenance. Sampling or confirmatory testwork where the records fall short.
Findings
What is it costing?
A written report setting out each finding, the evidence for it and its consequence in recovery, cost or risk, with recommendations ranked by value and effort.
Follow-through
What happens next?
Where you want it, we stay on to scope the fixes, supervise plant trials or carry the work into an Engineering Package.
Audited by people who have built and run plants.
An audit is only as good as the judgement behind it. Our principals have designed, commissioned and operated commercial plants for gold and precious metals, cobalt, magnesium, copper and specialty metals, on chloride, sulphate and nitrate systems. They know from experience where processes fail between the laboratory and the plant, and which fixes hold.
The Royal Canadian Mint is among the organisations whose operations we have audited.
- Independent
- Our opinion is our own, and the report is written for you, not for a vendor or a contractor.
- Confidential
- Data, samples and findings stay with you. Nothing is published or shared without your consent.
- Plain language
- Written for the people who must act on it: operators, engineers, a board or a lender.
Tell us what needs a second look.
A short description of the plant, flowsheet or study, and the question you need answered, is enough to scope an audit. Every enquiry is confidential and gets a personal reply.