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Submission and Fees

This page details the submission steps for collaborative projects with academics. Please contact one of our scientists to discuss your project, your needs and the goals of your project, estimates concerning cost and turn-around time, and any other necessary details. Our price list for collaborative projects can be viewed here.

For any non-collaborative commercial projects, please contact Sarah Glynn who can provide you with information on services provided through Earth Quest Solutions. 

We will not accept project samples or issue a Calira quotation without prior discussion of your project with a lab scientist.  

Admin steps

  1. Register as a user on our lab booking system – Calira. Contact Rachel Mey, who will send you an email invitation to register, along with instructions for use. 

  2. On Calira, under the ‘services’ tab, request a quote. Along with the quote request, please also submit a completed sample form. 

Solution work
Request quote for maximum 16 columns at a time (2 reference materials + 14 unknowns). Before submitting a quotation request on Calira, please first get in touch with Karen Smit, Saumik Samanta, and Rachel Mey to discuss your analytical needs, so that they can advise on the best way to proceed. 

Laser work
Before submitting a quotation request on Calira, please first get in touch with Rachel Mey, Scott MacLennan and Robert Bolhar to discuss your analytical needs, so that they can advise how many instrument days are suitable. 

  • Internal Geosciences Payments: Fill out account# on the sample form that you submit to Calira. 
  • Internal Wits Payments: Send an Internal Requisition. 
  • External Payments: We’ll send through a quote that you can submit to your finance system for payment. The quote will have our banking details, or you can send a Purchase Order (PO). For an electronic payment, proof of payment needs to be emailed to our lab scientists. 

 

After the admin steps have been completed

Solution work

  1. For solution isotope work, you need to already have concentrations of RbSr SmNd LuHf (by solution ICP-MS for whole-rocks or laser ablation ICP-MS for mineral separates). Once you have obtained your concentration data, get in touch with Saumik Samanta and Karen Smit, so that they can work with you to fill out a spreadsheet with calculations for spike and sample weights. 

  2. Once the ‘spike and dilutions’ spreadsheet has been completed, you can be in touch with Saumik Samanta about scheduling time to complete work in the clean lab. Scheduling will depend on other users in the lab along with the availability of consumables for everyone’s work (distilled acid stock, cleaned pipette tips, cleaned Savillex). For the digestion and column chemistry steps for 16 columns in the clean lab, the approximate time-frame is 2-3 weeks.  

  3. Once the clean lab work is completed, and samples are dried down and ready for mass spectrometry, samples are brought over to the mass spec lab and we can schedule mass spec time - on the TIMS for Sr and Nd, and on the Sapphire for Rb, Sr, Lu, Hf. Instrument time cannot be booked by users, but is determined by lab staff based on the queue of users and demand.

  4. Once mass spectrometry is completed, you will be required to do the data processing (spike deconvolution) using spreadsheets that we will provide. Lab scientists will work through the spike deconvolution steps with you to ensure that there were no errors during data processing. 

Laser work

  1. Before you can proceed with laser-ablation trace element work, you will need to know the major element compositions of your minerals so that a suitable element (e.g., Al, Si, Ca…) can be used as an internal standard in order to convert the signal from the ICP-MS into quantifiable concentrations.

  2. For laser isotopes and trace element work, please get in touch with Rachel Mey, Scott MacLennan and Robert Bolhar, so that they can work out an analytical plan with you and advise you on how many days you will need on the instrumentation in order to complete your work. 

  3. Once you have reached an agreement with the lab scientists on how many days you need to complete your work, please submit an official quotation request on Calira. 

  4. You can set up your own laser points (either in-person in the lab, or remotely by TeamViewer or Chrome Remote Desktop), and our lab scientists will run the analyses for you.

  5. Once laser mass spectrometry is completed, lab scientists will process your data through Iolite and send you the finalised dataset.
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