KAT Exploration Inc (KATX)

[geo_newfie]

I know... I know... I highjacked the question...

I have not worked any REE-related properties, but I have some geochemist friends that do this stuff all the time. A large rock sample could be broken down and analyzed for every element, but as I mentioned you would need to use different instruments for different elements of interest based on their individual properties. Certain methods are better than others for base metals versus REEs for example. The geologist would fill out a chain of custody (COC) for the samples and on that COC he/she would ask for which analyzes they want. The COC should also indicate the method to be used.

At the lab, the chemist takes the sample, crushes it, and takes the necessary amount of each analytical run indicated on the COC. So it would not take longer.

You take Rock A. Crush it. Take X amount of crushed rock for this analyzes and X amount for this analyzes. Calibrate the individual instrument and away it goes. No delay. While one machine performs the base metals, another is probably doing the REEs.

If it is the same method, then they would need to recalibrate the machine between runs as the detection limits would be different. This would not cause that much of a delay as they would run all the base metals first, then recalibrate, then run the REEs or whatever else they were interested in.

The point is that they probably have a contract that states a 2-week turn-around time, which is standard. If they submit 10 samples and want a large suite of analyzes it still should take 2-weeks, unless other prior arrangements have been made.