Metallurgical accounting software
What it is, what it should do, and ten questions to ask before you choose a system, with our own answers for MAX4METS.
What is metallurgical accounting?
Metallurgical accounting, also called metal accounting or production accounting, tracks the mass of material and the metal it contains as it moves through a processing plant: from the ore fed to the mill, through each stage of the process, to the product that leaves site and the tailings that do not. Its job is to say, with known accuracy, how much metal was produced, how much was lost, and how much is still in the circuit.
Those figures feed the plant’s daily decisions, the operation’s monthly results and, for listed miners, the production numbers reported to the market. That is why controls over metal accounting matter, and why the AMIRA P754 code of practice exists.
Why spreadsheets stop being enough
Spreadsheets are flexible, but on their own they do not record who changed a figure or why, the logic can end up in one person’s workbook, anyone who can edit the file can change the formulas as well as the data unless it is carefully protected, and copied values lose their link to the laboratory or plant record they came from. As the plant, the team and the scrutiny grow, those gaps become risks.
What metallurgical accounting software does
A metallurgical accounting system replaces the chain of workbooks with one controlled process:
- Capture Bring in laboratory assays, plant readings, surveys and shift logs without retyping them.
- Store Hold every value in one database with a record of who entered or changed it, when and why.
- Calculate Turn measurements into tonnes, grades, contained metal and recoveries the same way every time.
- Reconcile Compare accounted metal with surveyed, shipped and final figures, and show the adjustments.
- Approve Have the right people review and sign off figures, and protect them once reported.
- Report Produce shift, daily and monthly reports and dashboards from the same numbers.
Ten questions to ask before you choose
These are the questions we would ask of any metallurgical accounting system, including our own. Each one says why it matters and how MAX4METS answers it.
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Can every reported figure be traced back to the measurement it came from?
The AMIRA P754 code expects the source of every input to be clear. If a monthly recovery cannot be traced to the assays and tonnes behind it, it cannot be defended.
MAX4METS
Every value records who entered it, when, and which import or worksheet it came from, and edits are logged with their previous and new values.
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Can users see how each figure is calculated, including how it rolls up from shift to month?
Averaging daily recoveries gives a different answer from calculating recovery on the month’s totals. Hidden or inconsistent roll-ups are an easy way for month-end figures to go wrong.
MAX4METS
Calculations are named formulas that any user can open, and each one states whether it aggregates then evaluates or evaluates then sums, and whether it sums, averages or weights its result.
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How does the system reconcile measured and accounted figures?
Methods differ. Some systems adjust every measurement statistically according to its expected error; others distribute a reconciled total across the period. Statistical reconciliation needs sampling and assay quality good enough to estimate those errors.
MAX4METS
MAX distributes reconciled totals, such as a surveyed stock change or a final assay, across the period in proportion and keeps each original value beside its reconciled value. It does not perform statistical (least-squares) reconciliation; where a site uses it, the results can be imported.
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How are figures approved, and what stops them changing after they are reported?
A defensible month-end shows who approved the numbers and that they did not move afterwards.
MAX4METS
Reports move from draft to approved with a record of who approved them, preliminary and final versions can be issued separately, and administrators set lock dates that protect reported periods from edits.
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How does data get in from the laboratory and the plant?
Retyping data is slow and error-prone. Ask whether the system connects live to other systems or imports their files, and who sets that up.
MAX4METS
MAX imports the files other systems produce, from Excel and CSV workbooks to laboratory and plant system exports, using saved mappings, and can collect them automatically from FTP servers, network shares and SharePoint. Worksheets cover readings entered by hand.
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Who configures the system, and can your own team change it?
Plants change. If every new tank, formula or report needs the vendor, the system falls behind the plant.
MAX4METS
The plant model, imports, formulas, reports and dashboards are configured in the web application. Nutava sets them up with your metallurgists, and your team can maintain them afterwards.
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Where does it run, and what does your IT team have to provide?
Installed systems need servers, databases, patching and backups. Hosted systems move that work to the vendor.
MAX4METS
MAX is a web application used in a browser. Nutava can host it on Microsoft Azure in Australia, with a dedicated database per customer, or it can run on your own Windows and SQL Server infrastructure. Users sign in with Microsoft Entra ID.
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Does it cover the whole operation, or only the metal balance?
Throughput depends on downtime, revenue depends on product leaving site, and performance is judged against budget. Separate tools for each mean separate numbers.
MAX4METS
MAX also covers downtime and delay accounting, bullion and product parcels with certificates of analysis, budgets and forecasts, and dashboards, all in the same database as the balance.
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How does it support the AMIRA P754 code of practice?
The code sets out principles for metal accounting. No software makes a site compliant on its own, so be wary of any vendor that says otherwise.
MAX4METS
We have set out each of the ten principles with what MAX does and what remains your site’s own practice.
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What does implementation look like?
A system handed over blank, or switched on without parallel running, puts the month-end at risk.
MAX4METS
Nutava walks through your flowsheet, data sources and reporting obligations, configures the site with your metallurgists, and runs in parallel with your existing process until the numbers agree.
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Choosing for your commodity
The accounting problems differ by process: gold in circuit and doré for gold, REO and NdPr grades for rare earths, payable elements and concentrate moisture for base metals. See how MAX4METS handles gold, rare earths and base metal concentrates.
See MAX with your own plant in mind
Book a demonstration and we will walk through your flowsheet, data sources and month-end with you.