Determination of rare earth elements in international geochemical reference materials

Instrumental neutron activation analysis of eight geochemical standard materials has been carried-out and the concentration values of nine rare-earth elements (REE) (La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Yb and Lu) have been determined. Discussion of some problems in the determination of those elements is presented and the results obtained are compared with literature values. In general, good agreement with available data was obtained but discrepancies with concentration values for a number of elements in some of these standards are discussed.