Actlabs: A Canadian company on the rise By Veronica Di Cecco & Ariella Hoffman
The new Actlabs global headquarters in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada.
In 1987, Activation Laboratories Ltd. (Actlabs), currently the largest analytical geochemical laboratory in Eastern Canada, was founded by its president, Eric Hoffman, PhD, P.Geo. Starting as a one-man operation, the company has since grown to over 1,000 employees in 27 locations across 13 countries. During this time, Actlabs has striven to be leaders in quality, innovation and service. The company is proud to now serve a diverse range of clients in the commercial, academic and public sectors and aims to provide solutions to virtually any problem a client may have. This is done using its wide range of technologies and services that are unsurpassed by any contract mineral lab in the world. In the mining sector, these services include fire assay, AAS, ICP-OES, ICP-MS, XRF, XRD, QEMSCAN, MLA, INAA, metallurgy, and much more. These services are capable of assisting at all stages of mineral projects, covering the entire life-cycle of mineral resources, from grassroots testing to mine operation. As well, Actlabs is capable of analyzing a variety of natural materials, from waters and
vegetation to soils, rocks and concentrates. Actlabs is committed to bringing the most modern technologies and a higher level of competencies to the analytical laboratory for the mineral industry. Actlabs was one of
the first mineral labs in the world to become an ISO 17025-accredited laboratory. In addition to maintaining the highest quality in conventional geochemical techniques, the company continues to invest heavily in the research and development of new products so that our clients can be at the forefront of exploration technology. As the company adopts new technologies, they work diligently to develop new methods that take full advantage of the instrumentation. Actlabs has its roots in the application of Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) to the minerals industry. In 1978, Dr. Hoffman introduced neutron activation to this sector and formed Actlabs in 1987 to continue large-scale applications. INAA involves irradiating a sample in a nuclear reactor and measuring the gamma radiation induced in the sample. Each activated element emits a “fingerprint� of radiation that can be measured and quantified to determine the concentration in a sample. This
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