The Potential of Fire-assay and ICP-MS for the Determination of Platinum-Group Elements in Geological Materials

Abstract

The analytical chemistry of the platinum-group elements may be said to reflect their occurrence in nature as rare, discrete, inhomogeneously distributed, mineral species, and their very high financial value. These factors have resulted in the need for an analytical method offering complete dissolution of a representative sample allied with an accurate measurement technique. For many years these criteria were satisfied by fusion of large sample aliquots followed by gravimetric measurement of the various components after ‘partition’, and the classical lead assay reigned supreme. The more recent requirement for accurate determination of individual platinum-group elements at low concentration, following developments in geochemical research methods, has resulted in a reappraisal of platinum-group element analytical chemistry. A useful two-part review has recently appeared (Van Loon, 1984, 1985).