Simultaneous analysis of antimony, bismuth and arsenic in copper concentrates by an atomic absorption method

Abstract

We tried to establish a new method involving the simultaneous analysis of Sb, Bi and As in copper concentrates by an atomic absorption method. To examine the effect of coexistent elements on the analysis, the main elements of Cu, Fe and/or S in the concentrates were added in the standard solutions. Sample pretreatment was very simple : the concentrate samples were heated mildly with HNO₃, HCl and HBr to decompose, and the analysis was carried out for the obtained aqueous solutions after a filtration and cleaning process. Although the effect of coexistent elements of Cu, Fe and/or S was very large, their variations were minimized by adding LaCl₃ to the sample solutions. The results obtained by the new method were in a fairly good agreement with those obtained by the traditional JIS atomic absorption and ICP methods.