Jessica Axen, Director – Exploration Services
BS Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Cornell College
Jessica recently joined Forte Analytical after 15 years at Hazen Research, Inc. performing roles as a research chemist, project engineer, and analytical laboratory director. Although her familiarity with mining process research is predominantly hydrometallurgical, she has also provided analytical support for other processes including physical beneficiation and thermal projects. Jessica has experience performing and troubleshooting wet chemistry analysis, fire assay, and instrumental (AA, ICP-OES, XRF) analysis on a wide variety of sample types and matrices. She has worked with base metals extractive processes, industrial materials, precious metals extraction, and rare earths extraction. As a laboratory director, Jessica managed multiple laboratories performing a variety of analyses including fuels, metallurgical, and radiochemical analysis certified by NELAC and the CDPHE. Clients included power plants, water municipalities, mining companies (national and international), and mining process research companies.
Jessica was excited to join Forte Analytical as the head of their newest offering, Exploration Services, which was created to support the analytical needs of a projects’ exploration phases by using a consulting approach to streamline a deposit towards PFS and FS level testing. The Exploration Services group will perform fire assay (gravimetric and AA) analysis for precious metals, as well as trace metals analyses using ICP-MS instrumentation post appropriate sample prep. Acknowledging the growing needs of exploration projects, we are focused on providing a high sample throughput at an economical cost while still retaining the quality and accuracy of work Forte is known for. As a part of Forte’s ongoing commitment to quality, the Exploration Services group is borrowing a page from our existing labs ISO 9001 accreditation and is laying the foundation for ISO 17025 accreditation for the new lab. We are fully dedicated to the certification process to meet the rigorous data QC that our clients demand, and envision quick acceptance based on our prior approach to the ISO 9001 process. As such, the lab is anticipating initiation of the accreditation process during Q3 2022 and targeting to be accepting client samples before the end of the year as a fully operational laboratory.
We encourage you to check back frequently as updates will be posted on the exciting progress of Forte’s newest analytical services group. Alternately, Jessica would be happy to discuss the labs development, capabilities, and how Forte can assist in streamlining analysis on upcoming or existing projects.