Spectrographic determination of gold and platinum metals in geological and other materials by fire-assay preconcentration

A method is described for the determination of gold, platinum, palladium, rhodium and iridium at microgram levels in geological and other materials by a combination of fire-assay preconcentration and emission spectrography. The noble metals are collected into 4-mg silver or platinum prills by a normal fire-assay technique. These prills are arced between graphite electrodes at 12 A d.c. No buffer is required to prevent ejection of the prill. Gold, platinum and palladium are determined in the silver prills and gold, palladium, rhodium and iridium in the platinum prills. Low, but reproducible, results are found for iridium. At the 0.08 ppm level an overall coefficient of variation of 11% is found. This technique is simple and rapid for the determination of the precious metals.