Smelter Laboratory LIMS

OnLIMS is a LIMS built only for mining, smelter and environmental laboratories, developed by Online LIMS Canada Ltd. since 1989. It runs in production at major mining, smelter and commercial-terminal laboratories across the Americas — Canada, the USA, Peru, Chile and Mexico — spanning copper, zinc, gold, lead and coal. A smelter laboratory asks something specific of it: the same sampling points, every shift, every day, with results the plant can act on before the next shift starts.

Routine jobs for a plant that never stops

Most LIMS are built around the batch: a fixed set of samples that arrives, is analysed and is closed. A smelter works the other way. OnLIMS has a routine job designed for it: an endless job created once, to which new samples are added by date or another unique identifier.

• Fixed sampling points Feed, concentrate, matte, slag, tailings and shift composites each keep a constant identity; date and time separate one shift’s result from the next. There is no new work order to open every round.
• Limits per point Each routine point carries Min, Max and Std limits, so production data gets a QC check against its own history, not against a generic range.
• Batch jobs alongside Campaigns, special requests and third-party samples run as batch jobs in the same system, under the same lifecycle and audit trail.
• Fast login OnWSH templates, job sample masks and macros register tens or hundreds of samples in one command, with no scripting.

The instruments a smelter laboratory runs

OnLIMS captures results directly at Level 0: 150+ instruments integrated over serial (RS-232 and RS-485, directly or through Moxa device servers) plus 25+ configurable file parsers. The classes in production include XRF and XRD, LECO carbon/sulfur and mercury analysers, AAS, ICP-OES and ICP-MS, titrators, UV-Vis, fire assay balances with auto-tare and analytical balances. On many instruments the exchange is bidirectional: OnLIMS writes the run’s sample IDs — and, where the method needs them, the weights — and then reads the instrument’s own output file. New instruments are added by configuration, not by recompiling.

The calculation engine handles what a smelter worksheet needs: user-configurable formulas referencing sample, dilution, moisture, tare, gross and CRM values, automatic unit conversion, dynamic detection limits and element-specific rounding.

QA/QC on every shift

• Accuracy OnQC evaluates certified reference materials in real time with Shewhart, X-Control and CUSUM charts and bias against the certified value.
• Precision Duplicate pairs feed range control, range-ratio and Thompson-Howarth plots, and percent replication tracks how consistently the method reproduces.
• Sign-off blocked on failure A 2SD excursion warns; a 3SD excursion rejects and blocks sign-off until the QA/QC failure is dealt with, and out-of-limit results require a justification note.

Results the plant can act on

Every result moves through an enforced lifecycle — Pending → Ready → Approved → Published. On publication it is password-sealed under supervisor control, and every later change is captured in a field-level audit trail: old value, new value, user and timestamp.

Approved feed, matte, slag and concentrate grades leave the laboratory by file or ODBC export to the systems that use them — plant historians such as PI, ERP platforms such as SAP and Oracle, and production reporting. Exports to OSIsoft PI and to acQuire are established integrations, in use at many OnLIMS sites.

Routine and batch jobs roll up against cost centres and work units, with management reports for statistics, cost and turnaround time — so the laboratory can show the plant what each stream and each shift costs to analyse.

Feed in, product out: the commercial record

A smelter also receives concentrate and ships product, and those lots are settled on laboratory numbers. When the producer’s, the buyer’s and an umpire’s results differ, the first question is whether they describe the same lot, on the same moisture basis, through comparable methods. OnLIMS keeps lot identity, preparation, method, instrument record, QA/QC decision, approval and certificate revision connected, so the laboratory can defend how each value was produced. For terminal and receiving workflows, see LIMS for concentrate terminals and commercial laboratories.

Deployment that suits a plant network

OnLIMS installs nothing on workstations: the applications run from a shared folder through a standard LAN shortcut, over Microsoft SQL Server 2016–2022 on-premises, virtualised or on a private cloud. Remote access through Citrix or Microsoft RDS is supported at latencies up to about 150 ms. Authentication can use Windows Active Directory single sign-on, with role-based permissions down to result entry, QC validation and final release. Accreditation evidence for ISO/IEC 17025 is handled in OnQMS.

Where OnLIMS fits, and where it does not

OnLIMS manages the laboratory record: samples, worksheets, instrument data, QA/QC, approval and certificates. It is not a process control system, a DCS or a plant historian, and it does not run metallurgical accounting itself. It feeds those systems with approved, traceable laboratory results.

Related: Metallurgical laboratory software · XRF integration · LECO integration

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• Solution Metallurgical laboratory software
• Solution LIMS for concentrate terminals and commercial laboratories
• Solution QA/QC for mining laboratories
• Solution XRF LIMS integration
• Article Copper concentrate commercial evidence: when one result can change the value of a shipment
• Article Mine Production Reconciliation: Where Grade Control, Plant Performance and Laboratory Data Must Agree
• Article LIMS Integration in Metallurgical Labs for Real-Time QA/QC and Operational Continuity