P754 has been an unusual project in that its main aim was to develop a code of practice for metal accounting with the following key objectives: Development leading to an agreed industry standard at corporate governance level Significant improvement of the credibility of metal accounting from deposit to saleable product Development of guidelines for data collection, data analysis, reporting and audit A data analysis toolbox which provides go/no go testing for metal balance data Promotion of industry adoption of these guidelines to improve transparency and financial credibility. Over time, these guidelines may evolve into a code and eventually into a standard Develop and train engineers to become expert in metal balancing and reporting._x000D_
Papers like this one and the workshop which follows this conference are part of promoting the code for adoption by industry._x000D_
Developing a code of practice has traditionally been the provenance of professional bodies associated with particular industries - often on a voluntary basis. Given today's industry pressures, it was felt that funding key input might accelerate the development process as well as offer opportunities to research some of the problems and to train some post graduate students in a difficult discipline._x000D_
In fact, the project has brought together six industry sponsors from a wide range of process types, three research providers, and funded students in South Africa and Australia. The project has also attracted input from the financial community. A textbook to support the application of the code has also been written._x000D_
The industry sponsors have made the Code and Guidelines available on request to help to facilitate its use by the mineral industry beyond the sponsor group._x000D_
The Code and Guidelines have already been translated into Spanish and Portuguese which suggests that industry acceptance may happen quite quickly._x000D_
The main thrust of the code is to integrate commercial and technical performance to a much higher degree. The Check in-Check out (CI-CO) method has been chosen as the vehicle for this combined approach. The mass and metal values used for CI-CO are 'absolute' and provide the basis of financial transfers._x000D_
The CI-CO process occurs at each transfer of custody - whether between divisions within a company, or between companies. This approach means that measurement of mass and metal flows becomes the critical element of the process and that a quantitative knowledge of measurement accuracy and precision is also essential. This knowledge allows technical differentiation between differences which are within the expected margin of variation and those which must be formally identified as discrepancies and subject to a process of investigation and sign off._x000D_
Hence, the application of the code for most companies should be more evolutionary than revolutionary, but with substantially more emphasis on measurement and definition of measurement error. Where this can be achieved, it should bring the mineral industry more into line with other industries competing for investment funds, community acceptance and future employees._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Morrison, R D and Gaylard, P G, 2008. Applying the AMIRA P754 code of practice for metal accounting, in Proceedings MetPlant 2008, pp 3-22 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).