Historically, it has been difficult to justify to management the expenditure required to either upgrade existing sampling stations or install new sampling stations to achieve representative sampling of a company's process streams. This has been due to the difficulty in quantifying the total value that the company can obtain by the installation of such sampling improvements. However, recent case studies show that representative sampling installed at strategic locations can improve product quality, increase throughput and improve the competitive market positioning. All these improvements, in conjunction with a dramatic increase in the value of Fe units over the last decade, due to the strong demand by China's iron and steel industry, provide the financial incentive for companies to adopt representative sampling.This presentation, which focuses on iron ore, describes the critical process streams from mine to shiploading and outlines the benefits of representative sampling, operating in conjunction with reconciliation processes. More specifically, it details case studies that highlight the value of ensuring representative sampling of critical process streams by quantifying the financial benefits of sampling improvements. This, in turn, justifies the expenditure required to ensure sampling to ISO 3082 standards. The benefits presented in these case studies can now provide the plant engineer with a framework to financially justify the expenditure required to obtain representative sampling on the critical process streams.In addition, an overview is provided of the new occupational health and safety harmonisation laws and the associated potential liability of company employees, in relation to representative sampling of raw materials with respect to transportable moisture limit measurements._x000D_
*This is an abstract only. No full paper is available for this abstract.* CITATION:Jelenich, L, 2012. Financial justification of representative sampling of raw materials, in Proceedings Sampling 2012 , pp 13-14 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).