Powering Critical Minerals Research with Quantitative Certified Reference Materials
Written By: AnalytiChem |
Powering Critical Minerals Research with Quantitative Certified Reference Materials
Critical minerals underpin modern technologies, the global energy transition, and next-generation advanced manufacturing. As demand for these materials accelerates, laboratories, universities, and research organisations face increasing pressure to generate reproducible, quantitative, and globally comparable geochemical data to support cutting-edge research, analytical method development, and long-term benchmarking.
In this context, Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) developed specifically for research and calibration occupy a category of their own. Unlike routine exploration or production materials, research-grade CRMs are designed to underpin analytical accuracy at the highest level, supporting calibration, interlaboratory comparison, method validation, and longitudinal studies where data integrity and reproducibility are non‑negotiable.
Introducing the AnalytiChem Critical Mineral CRMs
To meet these exacting requirements, AnalytiChem has developed a specialised portfolio of Certified Reference Materials for critical minerals research and analytical method development. This new suite empowers laboratories and research institutions to generate high-confidence datasets across complex and emerging mineral systems, while maintaining the analytical rigour demanded by advanced scientific applications. The analytical rigour is supported by our certification process using a combined quantitative technique approach, averaging values across multiple quantitative methods to minimize technique-specific bias and produce certified values that are independent of any single method.
These CRMs have been prepared to support:
- Quantitative method development and calibration
- Robust interlaboratory and inter-technique comparison
- Consistent, comparable datasets across global research programs
- Long-term benchmarking for critical minerals studies
Available Certified Reference Materials:
AC18.19476 – Lithium Concentrate
Description: Lithium pegmatite ores sourced from the Eastern Goldfields Region of Western Australia. The material is predominantly spodumene (LiAlSi₂O₆), with minor quartz, albite, muscovite, and other mica minerals.
Unit size: 50 g, glass wide-mouth jar
AC18.19477 – Rare Earth Ore
Description: Rare earth element–rich lateritic ore from the Mount Weld carbonatite complex, Western Australia. The material contains light rare earth element enrichment along with niobium, tantalum, zirconium, and trace metals.
Unit size: 50 g, glass wide-mouth jar
AC18.19478 – Cobalt Ore
Description: Copper–cobalt primary ore from the Dilala Est project, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The material comprises bornite, chalcopyrite, and cobalt sulphides hosted within Neoproterozoic sedimentary sequences of dolomitic argillite, shales, and sandstones.
Unit size: 50 g, glass wide-mouth jar
AC18.19480 – Platinum Group Element (PGE) Ore
Description: PGE-bearing ore from the Merensky Reef, Bushveld Complex, South Africa, blended with barren gabbro-norite from the Black Hill Norite Complex, South Australia. The material contains a PGE 4E (Pt + Pd + Rh + Au) total of 1.45 ppm
Unit size: 70 g, glass wide-mouth jar
Together, these CRMs provide a robust and complementary reference framework for critical minerals research. They support precise analytical calibration, reliable method development, seamless interlaboratory comparison, and long-term research programs, helping laboratories and institutions maintain confidence in their data as critical minerals science continues to evolve.
