The 2003 Annual meeting of the Mineral Deposits Studies Group is to be held at the University of Leicester, England,

Microthermometry is a widespread method of determining the chloride concentrations of saline fluid inclusions and remains the most reliable method for converting quantitative cation analyses (e.g. from LA–ICP–MS experiments) into absolute concentrations. For most saline fluids solute concentrations have been calculated as an equivalent weight percentage of NaC on the basis of phase transition temperatures in the model H2O–NaCl system. Microthermometric analysis of a set of synthetic NaCl-rich fluid inclusions, each containing a variety of minor cations, has shown that chloride concentrations calculated from the model H2O–NaCl system are probably valid for most saline fluids. Uncertainties in this procedure are probably insignificant compared with the analytical errors attached to most single fluid-inclusion microanalytical techniques.