Quality Control

ZarAzma Quality Management Systems

Central to the high standard of analysis we provide is the Zarazma Quality Management System (ZQMS). The ZQMS ensures that all laboratory procedures are fully validated, documented, and regularly audited for currency and correct usage. The diligent use of industry-accepted controls, such as duplicate analyses, certified reference materials and analysis of blanks enables Zarazma's Quality Control Chemists to monitor the laboratory's performance on both the individual job level, as well as longer term trends

Information Management

Zarazma utilises a proprietary client-server Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for data capture, sample tracking, quality control and reporting functions.

External Controls

Zarazma participates in several international round-robin programs to ensure that analytical accuracy is maintained at a high standard. In these programs, standard unknown samples are sent to multiple laboratories for analysis. Results are collated and each laboratory is advised of its performance in comparison with the others, with respect to accuracy and precision of results. This is a valuable tool in assessing how well the laboratory is performing.

In-Rack Quality Control

A central feature of Zarazma's quality control is the inclusion of industry-standard in-rack control measures. This includes the analysis of:

Reagent blanks - addition of all reagents, with no sample, to test for contamination,

Sample duplicates - samples are selected at random and analyzed in duplicate, to monitor reproducibility

Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) - mineral samples of known concentration are analyzed to test accuracy.

The in-rack controls are monitored to assess i) acceptability of each rack analyzed, and ii) performance of the laboratory over time