The supercritical fluid extraction of manganese and iron from solid matrix (wood pulp) is demonstrated experimentally, Supercritical carbon dioxide is used together with lithium bis(trifluoroethyl) dithiocarbamate (FDDC) as the ion-pairing reagent. The metal content of the pulp samples was determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Optimum conditions were determined to be 30 min each of static and dynamic extraction with 200 atm pressure at 40degreesC. Thermomechanical pulp (TMP) extracted under these parameters exhibits an 80% decrease in manganese content, and 91% after a second, sequential extraction. The simultaneous removal of iron was found to be only 6% and supports evidence that it is much more strongly bound to the TMP matrix than manganese.