Determination of Rare Earth Elements, Zirconium, Hafnium, Thorium and Uranium in Ultramafic Rocks by ICP‐MS after RE‐UTEVA Resin Columns for Separation and Pre‐Concentration

Abstract

A simple method was developed for the determination of REEs, Zr, Hf, Th and U in ultramafic rocks by inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry with a combination of RE and UTEVA extraction resins for their separation and pre‐concentration. Ultramafic rocks were digested with HNO3‐HF‐HClO4 and finally turned into 11 mol l−1 HCl solutions together with H3BO3 to remove insoluble fluorides. The removal of matrix elements was achieved during the loading procedure. Following this, REEs on RE resin, and Zr, Hf, Th and U on UTEVA resin were eluted with 10 ml of 0.24 mol l−1 HCl, with recoveries better than 94.4%. This method was validated using reference materials JP‐1, DTS‐2B, OKUM, UB‐N, MUH‐1 and DZΣ‐2, and the measurement results for target analytes were comparable to literature values, indicating its applicability to the determination of REEs, Zr, Hf, Th and U at ultra‐trace level in ultramafic rocks.