The system determines the conc. of a mercury contaminant within a solid material sample by heating the latter and transporting the emitted mercury vapour to a measuring device, e.g. an atom absorption analyser, by mixing with a defined air quantity and sampling the gas mixture via a bypass line (10). The measured values provided by the measuring device are integrated over time and compared with a calibration curve, for determining the mercury contaminant conc. of the solid material. Pref. the air quantity is determined in dependence on the measuring range and the measuring sensitivity of the measuring device.
