In the high-stakes world of commercial and industrial assaying, throughput and accuracy are the only metrics that matter. OnLIMS is engineered to remove the administrative friction that slows down analytical production.
Core Capabilities
- Workflow Automation Complete management of sample preparation and analytical streams.
- High-Volume Processing Designed to handle thousands of assay samples daily without performance degradation.
- Instrument Connectivity Direct, real-time data capture from AAS, ICP, XRF, and precision balances.
- Automated Validation Algorithmic checks for data consistency before results are committed to the database.
- Digital Reporting Instant generation of Certificates of Analysis (CoA) with secure distribution.
The system helps laboratories increase throughput while maintaining the rigorous accuracy required for geochemical, exploration, and grade control analysis. OnLIMS keeps your assay data rapid, traceable, and defensible from the moment a sample is logged.
Built for fire assay and multi-element workflows
An assay laboratory rarely runs a single technique. Gold and silver are determined by classic fire assay — fusion, cupellation and parting — while base metals and trace elements are measured by ICP-OES, ICP-MS or AAS. OnLIMS models both streams against the same sample, so a single drill core, concentrate or tailings sample can carry its fire assay result and its multi-element suite side by side, then consolidate into one Certificate of Analysis.
- Fire assay for Au/Ag Capture weights and final values through the fusion, cupellation and parting sequence, with QA/QC applied to each control point.
- Multi-element by ICP/AAS OnWSH (the electronic lab notebook and instrument-capture module) reads results from ICP-OES, ICP-MS, AAS, XRF and LECO C/S analysers across 150+ supported instruments.
- Real-time and file-based capture Direct serial (RS232) acquisition for on-line instruments, plus configurable file parsers for CSV, TXT and XML exports using regex mapping.
- Sample-prep visibility Track crushing, splitting and pulverising steps so prep status is visible alongside analytical progress.
- Integrated QA/QC OnQC interprets CRMs, blanks, duplicates and control samples with Shewhart, X-Control, CUSUM and Thompson-Howarth charts; an out-of-limit result requires a justification note before it can be released.
From chain of custody to Certificate of Analysis
OnLAB manages the sample lifecycle so every job moves through a controlled sequence: Pending → Ready → Approved → Published. Work is organised as batch jobs — a fixed number of uniquely identified samples, typical of a drill-core program — or as routine jobs built on fixed sampling points differentiated by date and time, well suited to continuous concentrate or tailings monitoring.
Traceability is enforced throughout. A full field-level audit trail records the old value, the new value, the user and the timestamp for every change. On publication, results are locked under supervisor control, and clients can retrieve their certified data through LabData, the read-only client portal. Automated Certificates of Analysis, crosstab views and exports to CSV, TXT, XLSX and XML close the loop, and file or ODBC integration feeds results into ERP and historian systems such as SAP, Oracle and PI.
Related: QA/QC for mining labs · Mining laboratory LIMS
Frequently asked questions
How does OnLIMS handle fire assay and multi-element analysis together?
Each sample can carry both fire assay results for gold and silver and multi-element results from ICP or AAS within the same job. Results are captured from the instruments, validated against QA/QC and consolidated into a single Certificate of Analysis.
What is the difference between a batch job and a routine job?
A batch job has a fixed number of samples with unique identifiers, such as a set of numbered drill core samples. A routine job has a fixed set of sampling points differentiated by date and time, suited to ongoing streams such as concentrates or tailings monitoring.
How does OnLIMS maintain chain of custody and traceability?
Samples are tracked through the lifecycle of Pending, Ready, Approved and Published. A full field-level audit trail records the old value, new value, user and timestamp for every change, and results are locked on publication under supervisor control.