What role can ISO 17025 play in the South African mining industry? ; Article

Abstract

The ISO/IEC 17025 Standard was developed by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) to provide a mechanism to enable laboratories to manage the quality of their analytical results and to produce internationally comparable results. The Standards Division of the South African Bureau of Standards has adopted the ISO/IEC 17025:2005 as South African National Standard 17025:2005. There are, however, many misconceptions about what the ISO 17025 standard involves and the importance of such a standard in analytical measurements within the mining industry. This paper gives an overview of the standard, and explains what the standard requires and how it is applied in analytical measurements of respirable, silica-containing dust. The recent Mankayi case shows there is a need for the improvement and standardisation of analytical measurements within the mining industry. The ISO 17025 provides the framework in which these can take place.