Profession assayer

Assayers test and analyse precious metals such as silver and gold to determine the value and properties of components using chemical and physical techniques. They also seperate precious metals or other components from other materials.

Personality Type

• Investigative / Realistic

Knowledge

• Good laboratory practice

  Regulatory requirements and Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) applied in the relevant manufacturing sector.

• Chemistry

  The composition, structure, and properties of substances and the processes and transformations that they undergo; the uses of different chemicals and their interactions, production techniques, risk factors, and disposal methods.

• Chemical processes

  The relevant chemical processes used in manufacture, such as purification, seperation, emulgation and dispergation processing.

• Characteristics of precious metals

  Variations of precious metals according to density, corrossion resistance, electrical conductivity, light reflectivity and quality.

• Laboratory techniques

  Techniques applied in the different fields of natural science in order to obtain experimental data such as gravimetric analysis, gas chromatography, electronic or thermic methods.

• Precious metals

  Types of rare metal that occur naturally and have a high economic value.

• Metal and metal ore products

  The offered metal and metal ore products, their functionalities, properties and legal and regulatory requirements.

• Statistics

  The study of statistical theory, methods and practices such as collection, organisation, analysis, interpretation and presentation of data. It deals with all aspects of data including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments in order to forecast and plan work-related activities.

• Analytical chemistry

  Instruments and methods used to separate, identify and quanitfy matter - the chemical components of natural and artificial materials and solutions.

Skills

• Maintain ore processing equipment

  Maintain and clean equipment; remove rubbish and spillages.

• Separate metals from ores

  Apply various chemical and physical methods to separate minerals from their ores such as magnetic, electric or chemical methods

• Handle chemicals

  Safely handle industrial chemicals; use them efficiently and ensure that no harm is done to the environment.

• Apply safety procedures in laboratory

  Make sure that laboratory equipment is used in a safe manner and the handling of samples and specimens is correct. Work to ensure the validity of results obtained in research.

• Use chemical analysis equipment

  Use the laboratory equipment such as Atomic Absorption equimpent, PH and conductivity meters or salt spray chambre.

• Perform laboratory tests

  Carry out tests in a laboratory to produce reliable and precise data to support scientific research and product testing.

• Identify purpose of analysis

  Identify the customer's needs and select the appropriate analysis methods that will fit a specific purpose, such as quality assurance, process development or improvement, production, and scientific research.

• Test raw minerals

  Take samples of mineral materials for testing purposes. Execute various chemical and physical tests on the materials.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB