An interlaboratory study of potassium determination in rocks and minerals

Seven laboratories took part in this interlaboratory study which was part of an investigation of the flame-speetrometric determination of potassium in rocks and minerals suitable for potassium-argon age-measurement. Three of these laboratories determined potassium in the following five international reference rocks: tonalite T-1, basalt BCR-1, andesite AGV-1, granite G-2, and granodiorite GSP-1. The other five samples (with the number of laboratories analysing them in parentheses) were: a chlorite rock (7), an altered basic igneous rock (5), an altered basaltic andesite (5), a biotite (6) and a potassium feldspar (7). Details of sample preparation and methods of analysis are given; no laboratory used exactly the same method as any of the other six laboratories. Results have been examined by analysis of variance; larger relative between- and within-laboratory variations occurred for the two samples containing less than 0.1% potassium than for seven of the eight other (higher potassium) samples; between-laboratory variations for the basalt BCR-1 and, to a lesser extent, the andesite AGV-1, were high and of similar magnitude to those for the samples containing less than 0.1% potassium. The causes of any poor interlaboratory agreement in the present study are considered.