Exploration for many types of deposits can often benefit from using groups of pathfinder elements, frequently including mercury and gold. Both mercury and gold are effectively digested and maintained in aqua regia solutions due to the presence of an oxidising and complexing agent, plus relatively low temperature heating. Methods that can report a large suite of trace elements including mercury and gold from the same digestion can be a time saving and cost-effective exploration tool. ALS offers the lowest detection limits in the industry for gold in soils and sediments by both cyanide and aqua regia digestion, using our innovative super-trace analytical methodology.
The detection levels reported by the gold plus multi-element methods can be determined to levels below crustal abundance for most elements. Aqua regia digestions are available from both 25g or 50g aliquots and this high sample to volume ratio compared to more aggressive digestions like four-acid (near total digestion) is advantageous for gold representivity, and facilitates the ability to detect elements to super-trace levels.
ALS has a variety of methods for super-trace gold as a standalone or including multi-element in soils and sediments, outlined below:
Code | Analyte | Range (ppm) | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Au-CN43™ Au-CN44™ |
Au | 0.02ppb-1ppm | Au by cyanide extraction with ICP-MS finish. 25g sample 50g sample |
Au-ST43™ Au-ST44™ |
Au | 0.1ppb- 0.1ppm | Au by aqua regia extraction with ICP-MS finish. 25g sample 50g sample |
Code | Analytes & Ranges (ppm) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AuME-ST43™ 25g sample AuME-ST44™ 50g sample |
Au | 0.0001-1 | Cu | 0.01-10000 | Nb | 0.002-500 | Ta | 0.005-500 |
Ag | 0.001-100 | Fe | 0.001-50 % | Ni | 0.02-10000 | Te | 0.001-500 | |
Al | 0.01-25 % | Ga | 0.004-10000 | P | 0.0005-1 % | Th | 0.0005-10000 | |
As | 0.01-10000 | Ge | 0.005-500 | Pb | 0.005-10000 | Ti | 0.0001-10 % | |
B | 2-10000 | Hf | 0.002-500 | Pd | 0.001-100 | Tl | 0.0005-10000 | |
Ba | 0.05-10000 | Hg | 0.002-10000 | Pt | 0.001-100 | U | 0.0005-2500 | |
Be | 0.005-1000 | In | 0.005-500 | Rb | 0.005-10000 | V | 0.05-10000 | |
Bi | 0.0005-10000 | K | 0.01-10 % | Re | 0.0002-50 | W | 0.001-10000 | |
Ca | 0.01-25 % | La | 0.002-10000 | S | 0.002-10 % | Y | 0.001-5000 | |
Cd | 0.001-2000 | Li | 0.1-10000 | Sb | 0.002-10000 | Zn | 0.1-10000 | |
Ce | 0.001-10000 | Mg | 0.01-25 % | Sc | 0.005-10000 | Zr | 0.01-500 | |
Co | 0.001-10000 | Mn | 0.1-50000 | Se | 0.002-1000 | |||
Cr | 0.01-10000 | Mo | 0.002-10000 | Sn | 0.01-500 | |||
Cs | 0.001-500 | Na | 0.001-10 % | Sr | 0.01-10000 |
Our trace level methods by aqua regia digestion and ICP-MS finish are excellent for regolith, where gold anomalies indicating mineralisation below surface are well characterised. Aqua regia dissolves native gold as well as gold bound in sulphide minerals; however, depending on the composition of the soil, gold determined by this method may or may not match recovery from fire assay methods.
Our method offerings for low level gold and multi-element in soils and sediments are outlined below:
Code | Analyte | Range (ppm) | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Trace Level | |||
Au-TL43 Au-TL44 |
Au | 0.001-1 | Au by aqua regia extraction with ICP-MS finish. 25g sample 50g sample |
Intermediate Grade | |||
Au-OG43 Au-OG44 |
Au | 0.01-100 | Au by aqua regia extraction with ICP-MS finish. 25g sample 50g sample |
Code | Analytes & Ranges (ppm) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AuME-TL43™ 25g sample AuME-TL44™ 50g sample |
Au | 0.001-1 | Co | 0.1-10000 | La | 0.2-10000 | Re | 0.001-50 | Tl | 0.02-10000 |
Ag | 0.01-100 | Cr | 1-10000 | Li | 0.1-10000 | S | 0.01-10% | U | 0.05-10000 | |
Al | 0.01-25% | Cs | 0.05-500 | Mg | 0.01-25% | Sb | 0.05-10000 | V | 1-10000 | |
As | 0.1-10000 | Cu | 0.2-10000 | Mn | 5-50000 | Sc | 0.1-10000 | W | 0.05-10000 | |
B | 10-10000 | Fe | 0.01-50% | Mo | 0.05-10000 | Se | 0.2-1000 | Y | 0.05-5000 | |
Ba | 10-10000 | Ga | 0.05-10000 | Na | 0.01-10% | Sn | 0.2-500 | Zn | 2-10000 | |
Be | 0.05-1000 | Ge | 0.05-500 | Nb | 0.05-500 | Sr | 0.2-10000 | Zr | 0.5-500 | |
Bi | 0.01-10000 | Hf | 0.02-500 | Ni | 0.2-10000 | Ta | 0.01-500 | |||
Ca | 0.01-25% | Hg | 0.01-10000 | P | 10-10000 | Te | 0.01-500 | |||
Cd | 0.01-2000 | In | 0.005-500 | Pb | 0.2-10000 | Th | 0.2-10000 | |||
Ce | 0.02-10000 | K | 0.01-10% | Rb | 0.1-10000 | Ti | 0.005-10% |