What is metal accounting?

We caught up with Gail Gnoinski, the Principal Consultant at VinOre and a facilitator of the AusIMM Metal Accounting Professional Certificate to understand what metal accounting involves.

Gail is a geologist and geochemist who has spent the past 20 years in roles ranging from governance and standards, metals tracking value-chain optimisation, mine geology operations, laboratory management and petrological-geochemical services, for multi-national corporates in Australia, South America, South Africa and Namibia.

"Metal accounting concerns the entire mining operation and helps us to strive for operational excellence and to assess the organisation's financial performance. 

Good metal accounting practices enables organisations to practice good governance, which in turn helps to attract and retain investors.

The P754 Metal Accounting Code of Practice and Guidelines (Amira code) defines Metal Accounting as the system whereby selected process data, pertaining to metals of economic interest, are collected from various sources including mass measurement and analysis, and transformed into a coherent report format that is delivered in a timely fashion in order to meet specified reporting requirements. 

To provide another perspective, Morrison and others define metal accounting as the estimation of saleable metal produced by the mine and carried in subsequent process streams over a defined period of time, usually weekly or monthly.

The comparison of estimates from different sources over a defined period is called reconciliation. The concept of reconciliation constitutes an inherently challenging discipline, which we explore throughout the Professional Certificate."

To learn how to accurately track and estimate metal production from delivery into the process plant through to saleable product, explore the Metal Accounting Professional Certificate. Gail is one of three expert facilitators, with significant industry experience, who will teach you to apply practical statistical methods; explain the principles of the AMIRA P754 Code of Practice for Metal Accounting; Relate integrity of reported metal accounts with financial reporting and associated corporate governance principles and plan improvements to practices.