May. 2, 2008
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May 2, 2008/Lakefield and Toronto. SGS SA (ZWX: SGSH), Noront Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: NOT)
Pursuant to Noront’s press release of April 25th, SGS and Noront would like to provide this update and clarification regarding the status of the analytical and quality program used for 774 samples from Noront’s Double Eagle project, located in the McFauld Lake area in north eastern Ontario. These samples were received by SGS’ Toronto laboratory in eight batches over the period February 6th to March 31st, 2008.
The Company reaffirms that this quality control issue does not relate to any assay results that have been previously released. In addition, the delays in achieving acceptable results from the laboratory have no bearing on the actual results that will be forthcoming.
Due to the ongoing high volume of samples processed at the SGS laboratory, the first Noront samples were not addressed until mid-March. The first batch of approximately 400 samples was processed for base and precious metals during a 10 day period. These data were reported to Noront’s Quality Control QP, Ms. Tracey Armstrong, P. Geo., of P&E Mining Consultants Inc. from April 7th through April 22nd, 2008. Upon reviewing Noront's certified field reference standards in these batches, Ms. Armstrong determined that the base metal data produced by SGS using a strong acid digest ICP-OES method were biased significantly low and contacted SGS on April 7th. A certified reference sample is commonly referred to as a “standard” and is purchased from an independent firm that certifies the assays for the standard are accurate and repeatable. If the standard sample assays are greater or less than the accepted range, then the entire batch of samples would be re-run for a second set of assays.
As per the terms of Noront’s Services Agreement, SGS investigated, defined and addressed the problems from April 8th-11th and began the programmed retesting of samples on April 14th . A delay between reporting to the lab of the low bias standards and the results from the reanalysis can be expected to take a minimum of 10 days. When this delay was exceeded, Noront issued the Press Release of April 25th in order to explain to investors the lack of forthcoming assay results.
SGS determined that, during the base metals analysis over the 10 day period when the samples were first analysed, two breaches to SGS’s global analytical quality control program had occurred. The first was related to the choice of certified reference material used to monitor the overall quality of the base metal analyses and the second was related to an ICP-OES calibration error. Both errors were human in nature and were not caught by subsequent QC monitoring and data reviewers. In response to this issue, SGS has reengineered the Toronto Lab Quality System as follows:
SGS is processing the Noront requested retests and is planning to have all remedial work completed by Friday May 2nd, 2008.
Upon receipt of the revised analytical reports from SGS, Noront will review the results for QA/QC as before, apply them to the drill hole information and release results in a timely manner.
SGS is a longstanding respected member of the North American exploration community and is very aware of the implications of analytical data and the need for quality and diligence. In response to the unprecedented boom in exploration activity, SGS has invested heavily to ramp-up capacity, quality and capability throughout our North American analytical network the last three years. The SGS laboratory in Toronto processed over 8.5 million analytical determinations in 2007 and is currently undergoing another significant expansion that will boost the laboratory’s capacity to in excess of 17 million analytical determinations per annum. As well, one of SGS’ senior lab managers was transferred to the Toronto site in late 2007 in response to the significant growth in business experienced the last 2 years and in response to the 2008 capacity expansion.
SGS considers itself to be an industry leader in terms of quality systems implementation – the Toronto lab has been certified to ISO/IEC 17025 for a number of specific registered tests since 2003 and has been audited to this Standard three times, the most recent being in April 2008. The Noront incident has already resulted in changes in operational procedures and protocols at the Toronto Lab site.
After the initial delay, Noront is impressed with SGS’ professional approach and their immediate attention to correcting the problem. Noront expects to continue to use SGS as one of it’s analytical laboratories.