- In an intercomparison study three low alloy steel materials were analyzed on their content of the trace element Mg, and five different analytical techniques were used, namely spark-OES, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), inductively coupled plasma time of flight mass spectrometry (ICP-TOFMS), inductively coupled plasma quadrupole mass spectrometry (ICP-QMS), and glow discharge mass spectrometry (GD-MS). Solid steel discs were used for analysis with spark-OES and GD-MS. For the analyses with ICP-OES, ICP-TOFMS, and ICP-QMS steel chips were wet-digested in aqua regia, and the wet-digestion was performed either in polypropylene tubes placed in a heating block or in Teflon pressure vessels using a microwave assisted system. The Mg concentrations obtained for the three steel materials were: 2.0, 2.8, and 10.3 µg g-1, respectively, and the spread in results was acceptable, giving RSD values in the range of 2030%.