In the search for gold deposits since time immemorial successfully used schlich survey, based on the study of mechanical halos and scattering fluxes of nugget gold. The use of geochemical methods based on the direct indication of finely dispersed gold in samples of small weight has become possible only in recent years due to the introduction into practice of the adsorption-spectral method of analyzing lithochemical samples, proposed by N. I. Safronov. However, this method, which achieves a sensitivity of 1-3·10^(-6) %, involves complex preliminary chemical treatment of samples. Even more complicated is the chemical preparation of samples for analysis in the assay-spectral method (sensitivity 10^(-8) %). The chemical preparation of samples is somewhat simpler in the electrochemical-spectral method, which has approximately the same sensitivity as the adsorption-spectral.

In geological practice, simple productive methods of spectral analysis are successfully used for geochemical characterization of various complexes of rocks and ore occurrences when searching for ore deposits. The accuracy of content determination within some intervals (for example, 0.001-0.003; 0.003-0.01; 0.01-0.03%, etc.) when searching for scattering halos of molybdenum, tin, lead, zinc, tungsten and other ore components can be sufficient. But in a number of cases there is a need to apply mass methods of analysis with more accurate determination of the content of the elements under study.