Classical Methods of Analysis

Abstract

A hundred years ago when the mineral resources of South Africa first began to be exploited on a commercial scale the analytical problems were handled by adopting the ’classical’ gravimetric and titrimetric procedures which had already reached an impressive state of development in Europe and the Western world. Changes in the demands made upon the analyst by economic factors, the need to exploit lower grade ores and to achieve higher recoveries, the need for more accurate and precise analyses of ever more complex materials, the mounting costs of skilled labour, the need for speedy routine methods and the trend towards continuous and automatic control of plant operations, all these and the constraints recently imposed by the conservationists have led to modifications in and additions to the ’classical methods'. These trends are illustrated by a number of examples. © 1977, Walter de Gruyter. All rights reserved.