In news– National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) has successfully developed a Bauxite Certified Reference Material (CRM) naming as BARC B1201 in joint collaboration with BARC.
What are CRMs?
- Certified reference materials are ‘controls’ or standards used to check the quality and metrological traceability of products, to validate analytical measurement methods, or for the calibration of instruments.
- A certified reference material is a particular form of measurement standard.
- CRMs are blocks of metal that come with certificates indicating the concentration of their various constituent elements along with their uncertainty levels.
- Testing laboratories use CRMs to calibrate measuring instruments, evaluate test procedures and for quality control purposes.
About India’s first CRM-
- This is the first of its kind CRM in India and 5 th in the World.
- A method previously developed and validated in the laboratory, using single-step bauxite dissolution and subsequent quantitation was used for homogeneity studies and an inter-laboratory comparison exercise of the CRM.
- The CRM was certified for nine property values – Al2O3, Fe2O3, SiO2, TiO2, V2O5, MnO, Cr2O3, MgO and LOI which are traceable to the international system of units.
National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO)-
- It is a government company(Schedule ‘A’ Navratna CPSE) having integrated and diversified operations in mining, metal and power under the ownership of the Ministry of Mines, Government of India.
- It was established on 7th January, 1981 having its registered office at Bhubaneswar.
- Presently, the Government of India holds a 51.5% equity in NALCO.
- It is one of the largest integrated bauxite–alumina–aluminium–power complex in the country, encompassing bauxite mining, alumina refining, aluminium smelting and casting, power generation, rail and port operations.
- NALCO is the first Public Sector Company in the country to venture into international market in a big way with London Metal Exchange (LME) registration since May, 1989.
- The Company is listed at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) since 1992 and National Stock Exchange (NSE) since 1999.
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)-
- It is India’s premier nuclear research facility.
- Location: It is headquartered in Trombay, Mumbai.
- It is a multi-disciplinary research centre with extensive infrastructure for advanced research and development covering the entire spectrum of nuclear science, engineering and related areas.
- Mandate: Its core mandate is to sustain peaceful applications of nuclear energy, primarily for power generation.
Source: PIB
