Sample digestion methods for the determination of traces of precious metals by spectrometric techniques

Recent advances in digestion methods used in the analysis of precious metal samples by spectrometric techniques are reviewed. The applicability of a fire assay, a wet acid treatment, chlorination and alkaline oxidizing fusion to a quantitative recovery of metals from various materials is discussed. Data on the precious metal contents obtained by using particular digestion methods as well as UV-VIS spectrophotometry, atomic absorption spectrometry, atomic emission spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in the examination of various samples are tabulated.