ORALS
SESSION:
MineralWedPM1-R7
| Torem International Symposium (8th Intl. Symp. on Sustainable Mineral Processing) |
| Wed. 29 Nov. 2023 / Room: Sunflower | |
| Session Chairs: Fernando Jose Gomes; Session Monitor: TBA |
15:20: [MineralWedPM108] OL
DETERMINATION OF RARE EARTHS AND NON-RARE EARTHS BY INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA-OPTICAL EMISSION SPECTROMETRY AFTER MICROWAVE DIGESTION Dhiroshnee Govender1 ;
1SaiParK Corporation (Pty) Ltd, Randburg, South Africa;
Paper Id: 310
[Abstract] A rapid microwave preparation method that is a combination of alkali fusion and acid digestion (4.5 h turn-around time) was developed for the determination of REEs (Sc, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Eb, Tm, Yb and Lu) and selected non-REEs ((Ba, Ca, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Sr, Th, Ti, U, V, Zn, Zr) by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). Uranium and Th, although investigated could not be determined by ICP-OES. The aim of this method was to provide cost effective REE and selected non-REE analysis within an acceptable turn-around time to industry. The microwave method of preparation was twin streamed with a manual method entailing alkali fusion and open vessel wet acid digestion on a hotplate. The data from both methods demonstrated comparable recoveries of REEs and non-REEs (between 95 % and 105 %) with an LOQ of 10 mg L-1. The methods were validated using two certified reference materials, CGL 124 and CGL 111.
