Over the last few years, we have witnessed increasing efforts dedicated to the scientific investigation and characteristics of trace elements. Especially in the field of human and animal nutrition, trace elements display a considerably attractive issue for research because they play an essential role in the nutrition of both animals and humans. Aquatic environments contaminated with trace elements are an emerging research area due to the toxicity, abundance, and environmental persistence of trace elements. Accumulation of heavy metals as a class of trace elements in various environments, and the subsequent transition of these elements into the food and feed chain, severely affects human health. The determination of type and concentration of trace elements is regarded as the first and most important step to follow the mechanisms controlling the dispersal and accumulation of trace elements. Element speciation in different media (water, soil, food, plants, coal, biological matter, food, and fodder) is pivotal to assess an element's toxicity, bioavailability, environmental mobility, and biogeochemical performance. Recently, new analytical techniques have been developed, which greatly simplified the quantitation of many trace elements and considerably extended their detection range. In this context, the development of reproducible and accurate techniques for trace element analysis in different media using spectroscopic instrumentation is continuously updated.

Open file report 197 is a second impression (second printing) of CRC LEME restricted report 195R. It was produced in July 2003 for Newmont Australia. The period of confidentiality has now expired. The association between trace elements and regolith minerals has been studied at the Scuddles Cu-Zn sulphide deposit Golden Grove, Western Australia. The Scuddles deposit is located in the Golden Grove district in the Murchison province of the Archaean Yilgarn Craton. The mineralogy and the trace element abundance were characterised using a combination of bulk and in situ micro-analytical techniques.The determination of low abundance elements in the minerals was carried out with in situ Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS).