Analysis of precious metals at parts-per-billion levels in industrial applications

Separately, we have been developing GAA for the measurement of gold as a replacement for the traditional laboratory fire-assay process. High-energy Bremsstrahlung X-rays are used to excite gold via the 197Au(γ,γ′)197Au-M reaction, and the gamma-rays released in the decay of the meta-state are then counted. We report on work to significantly improve accuracy and detection limits.