THE elements Se, Te, Ge, Re are easily evaporated out when HClO_4, HNO_3, HF are used as the opendigestion method. There is a great amount of organic and inorganic carbon in black shale, so it is necessary to use oxide acid (HClO_4, HNO_3) to digest the samples, and the Cl will interfere the determinationof Se and Ge. In this note we reported a simple digestion method for black shale. The sample was digested with HNO_3 and HF in PTFE pressure bomb at 190 for 3 h, the rest HF was reacted with HBO, toprotect the introduction system of ICP-MS. After digestion, the samples were determined directly by ICP-MS. So the recoveries were better than the open digestion method. For 50 mg sample,1.5 mL HNO_3 and4 drops of HF can completely dissolve black shale. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry has been successfully used for determination of As,Se, Te, Bi in geological materials. In geological and biological samples, the concentrations of ele- The elements Se, Te, Ge, Re are easily evaporated out when HClO_4, HNO_3, HF are used as the opendigestion method. There is a great amount of organic and inorganic carbon in black shale, so it is necessary to use oxide acid (HClO_4 , HNO_3) to digest the samples, and the Cl will interfere the determination of Se and Ge. In this note we reported a simple digestion method for black shale. The sample was digested with HNO_3 and HF in PTFE pressure bomb at 190 for 3 h, the rest HF was reacted with HBO, toprotect the introduction system of ICP-MS. After digestion, the samples were determined directly by ICP-MS. For the 50 mg sample, 1.5 mL HNO 3 and 4 Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry has been successfully used for determination of As, Se, Te, Bi in geological materials. In geological and biological samples, the concentrations of ele-