Methodologies for the analysis of rare earth elements and their relevance to reference materials.

India has the third largest resources of rare earth elements (REE) in the world. These resources are essentially the monazite sand present in the beaches of southwest, south-east, and mid-eastern coasts of India. Therefore, analytical methodologies for the determination of REE in sea water and high-purity materials were developed. An overview of this work and its relevance to the preparation of standard reference materials of REE in sea water, marine sediments, and high-purity materials in the future is given.