Bradley, and 8 co-authors, reported in early 2020 that the determination of trace elements, particularly rare earth elements, in uranium ore concentrates (UOCs) is important as the pattern can be indictive ore characteristics. Presented here is a methodology for accurately quantifying rare earth elements (REE) in UOCs. To improve the measurement uncertainty, isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) was utilized over other quantification techniques such as external calibration or standard addition.
The isotopic determinations were measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). To obtain high-fidelity isotopic measurements, separation of the REE from the uranium matrix was achieved by high-performance ion chromatography (HPIC), reducing the isobaric interferences. After separation, the target analytes were analyzed in two different modalities. For high precision analysis, the separated analytes were collected and measured by ICP-MS in an “offline” fashion. For a rapid approach, the separated analytes were sent directly into an ICP-MS for “online” analysis. These methods have
been demonstrated to accurately quantify the REE content in a well-characterized UOC sample.
The authors concluded that the primary goal of this project was to develop a method that provided accurate and precise quantification of REEs in UOC through HPIC separations and IDMS. Overall, by utilizing IDMS, in comparison to external calibration-based quantification platforms, the uncertainty was minimized. In order to perform IDMS on REE, a separation was required and successfully achieved here by HPIC. The method was compared by performing the IDMS measurements offline by a magnetic sector ICP-MS as well as directing the separated eluents into a quadrupole ICP-MS. Here, while the overall
measurement accuracy was relatively the same, the measurement uncertainty was indeed improved by high precision isotopic measurements achieved by the offline analysis. Overall, this method was effective at quantifying REE in a minimally processed UOC sample.
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