Radiochemical fire-assay for determination of the platinum group elements

The radioactive study of Ni–NiS bead fire-assay followed by neutron activation analysis showed nearly quantitative collection of the platinum group elements and gold in the bead. However, there was clearly some loss of gold and ruthenium at the dissolution and filtration stage. A preliminary study of the radiochemical fire-assay method indicates that the technique could overcome the problem of losses. Chemical carrier behaves in the same way as platinum metal concentrate during the analytical procedure and could be used to evaluate yields during each determination. When applied to rock samples, the radiochemical fire-assay gives good sensitivity and could be applied to the determination of nanogram concentrations of the platinum group elements without the problem of high blank values from reagents.