Three Cobalt-Rich Seamount Crust Reference Materials: GSMC-1 to 3

A research project involving the preparation of three Co-rich crust reference materials (GSMC-1 to 3) has been preliminarily completed. The samples were collected from the eastern and central Pacific seamount zones and their main chemical composition is MnO₂. After the raw materials were dried in ambient air and at low temperature (60-100 C), they were ground in a ball mill to form a well-mixed powder. The proportion of particle size fractions of < 74 μm and < 3 μm was over 98% and 50% respectively. The homogeneity of the materials was tested using wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (WD-XRF). The relative standard deviation (% RSD) of the measurements for all the selected elements in forty sub-samples randomly taken from the bottles was less than 0.4%. Sixteen laboratories from Germany, Russia, France, Australia and China participated in the collaborative analysis programme. Fifty seven elements or constituents were analysed, and among those, forty six elements were certified in each sample. The sum of contents of the major and minor elements or components was 99.5% for GSMC-1, 99.6% for GSMC-2 and 99.2% for GSMC-3.