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Seven soil geochemical certified reference materials (CRMs) GSS 10‐16 recently prepared by the Institute of Geophysical and Geochemical Exploration (IGGE), are mainly used for sample analysis in geochemical surveys of the overburden region in China. Fifteen Chinese institutes and central laboratories, which operated at a high level of analytical performance analysed these samples. More than ten reliable analytical methods based on different principles of measurement were adopted, of which ICP‐MS, ICP‐AES and NAA were taken as the primary analytical methods. In total, 23715 determinations were carried out, 5660 average data sets were obtained, seventy two elements and components were determined and certified values of sixty nine elements and components were assigned. Rhenium concentrations were measured by isotope dilution ICP‐MS in GSS‐10, GSS‐13, GSS‐15 and GSS‐16. Certified values of elements in GSS 10‐16 have good precision and for 90% of these values relative uncertainties are less than 10%.

Sulfide mineral certified reference materials GSO 1‐7, recently prepared by the Institute of Geophysical and Geochemical Exploration (IGGE), were analysed by twelve laboratories. Various reliable analytical methods based on different principles were adopted and classical chemical methods were taken as the primary analytical methods, by which 5729 determinations were carried out, 1425 average data were obtained, and twenty one to twenty seven elements and components were certified.

Certified or reference values for sixty six to sixty seven elements and element oxides are given for geochemical reference materials recently prepared by the Institute of Geophysical and Geochemical Exploration (IGGE), including limestone (GSR‐13), granitic gneiss (GSR‐14), amphibolite (GSR‐15), lake sediment (GSS‐9) and stream sediments (GSD‐1a, GSD‐13, GSD‐14). These samples supplement the GSR 1‐6, GSD1‐8 and GSD 9‐12 certified reference materials already prepared and characterized by the IGGE.

Unlike the situation for other elements, few reference materials certified for the platinum‐group elements are currently available. Therefore, the GPt1‐7 series of PGE geochemical CRMs, prepared by the IGGE, represent an important addition and comprise a range of matrix types, including a soil, stream sediment, Mg‐rich ultramafic rock, Fe‐rich ultramafic rock, platinoid ore depleted in Cu, Ni and Fe, and a chromitite. The concentration of PGE in these samples ranges over 4‐5 orders of magnitude and the samples were shown to have good homogeneity as assessed by a variance test. Analytical methods based on different principles were used in sample certification, including several fire assay and wet chemical procedures used for decomposition and preconcentration. Certified values for the elements Pt, Pd, Os, Ru, Ir, Rh and Au were determined by AAS, catalytic colourimetry (COL), catalytic polarography (POL), atomic emission spectrometry (AES), ICP‐MS and NAA. Recently, the GPt1‐7 samples were approved as national primary CRMs by the State Bureau of Technical Supervision of China.