Recent Advances in the Determination of PGE in Exploration Studies - A Review

Concentrations and distribution of platinum-group elements (PGE: Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, Ir and Pt) in geological materials serve as important tracers of mantle processes, as well as extraterrestrial input into crustal environment. There is also considerable demand of these precious metals for their high economic value. Hence, an accurate abundance data of these and associated metals in geological materials are essential for an understanding of the processes that concentrate these elements in the crust, mantle and ore deposits. The last two decades have seen a dramatic increase in the quality of data available for PGE which is mainly due to advancements in high precision analytical techniques and related instrumentations. This has contributed immensely to an understanding of their geochemistry and processes that lead to mineralization and there also has been a considerable increase in the geochemical exploration activity for these elements in recent years. In this article, in addition to the above aspects, the recent developments in the estimation of PGE using different analytical techniques such as, flame atomic absorption spectrometry (F-AAS), graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and high resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS) for the geochemical exploration studies, are being reviewed. Recent studies on the direct analysis of Pb and NiS buttons by LA-ICP-MS and LA-HR-ICP-MS have shown considerable promise for the PGE and gold exploration studies.