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 w orld. These resources are essentially the monazite sand present in the beac hes of southwest, south-east, and mid-eastern coasts of India. Therefore, a nalytical 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, ma rine sediments, and high-purity materials in the future is given.