Microwave plasmas (MWP) and Inductively coupled plasmas (ICP) have proved to be good-to-excellent excitation sources in optical emission spectrometry for the analysis of geological materials (Govindaraju et al. (1); Burman et al. ( 2)).The analysis of silica rich geological materials requires awkward digestion procedures involving, for instance, lithium metaborate or sodium carbonate fusion as a critical step. The complete dissolution of silicate rocks usually demands a large excess of fusing agent, commonly in the proportions 10:1 to 7:1, but even proportions as low as 4:1 have been successfully used (Suhr et al. (3); Ingamells (4); Govindaraju et al. ( 7); Joensuu (5)). In our MWP spectroscopic work, the preferred ratio has been 7 parts of LiB02 (350 mg) to 1 part sample (50 mg). Our preparation of the metaborate is essentially identical to that in references (3, 4).
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