SGS Durango Chemical Analysis Facility: Trusted Expertise

Few international companies offer laboratory testing services within Mexico, preferring instead to send samples to laboratories located in Houston or Toronto. But SGS’s Durango laboratory offers clients a speedy turnaround and eliminates the customs burdens of shipping exploration cores to other countries.

The SGS Minerals Services facility is located in the heart of Mexico’s mining hub to the north and offers a wide range of comprehensive sample preparation, analytical and metallurgical-testing services. It also acts as a gateway to SGS’s global network of analytical and metallurgical facilities. The lab is fully accredited under the international ISO/IEC 17025 standard, which reduces the need to ship samples out of the country and thus allows companies to have input into their projects while minimizing turnaround times.

Analytical capabilities on-site include fire assay with atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and gravimetric analysis for gold and silver, aqua regia and cyanide BLEG leach analyses for gold (DIBK-AAS finish), ICP-AES multi-element packages, aqua regia, strong acid digestion and peroxide and borate fusions and classil methods for high-grade copper, lead and zinc concentrates

In addition to these analyses, the Durango lab offers an increasing series of metallurgical-testing capabilities, including specific gravity or bulk density testing, granulometric analysis, gravimetric concentration (using Knelson and Wilfley concentrators), floatation, leaching testing and mill bond or SPI testing.

Many companies choose to outsource their analytical requirements for exploration or production laboratory services to SGS since it applies the same principles, procedures and quality standards to its outsourced laboratories as it does to its commercial laboratories.

Companies that allow SGS to design, staff and operate their laboratories will be guaranteed to have at their disposal a full scope of capabilities for the fast turnaround of accurate, reliable data needed to run and optimize their plant operations and confirm the value produced by their operations. SGS is now operating on-site laboratories for customers with mining operations in Guerrero, Sonora and Guanajuato states.