A sensitive and simple method for the simultaneous preconcentration of nutritionally important minerals in real samples has been reported. The method is based on the formation of metal complexes by 4,6-dihydroxy-2-mercaptopyrimidine (DHMP) loaded on activated carbon. The metals content on the complexes are then cluted using 5 mL 2 M HNO3 in acetone, which are detected by AAS at resonance line. In this procedure, minerals such as Cu, Ni, Pb and Co could be analyzed in one run by caring out the simultaneous separation and quantification of them. At optimum condition the response are linear over concentration range of 0.04-1.1 mu g mL(-1) for Ni2+ and 0.04-1.0 mu g mL(-1) for Cu2+ Pb2+ and Co2+. The detection limits of each element are expressed as the amount of analytes in ng mL(-1) giving a signal to noise ratio of 3 are equal to 3.5, 3.4, 2.9 and 8.4 for Ni2+, CO2+, Cu2+ and Pb2+. The sorption capacity was determined by saturating 0.5 g solid phase. The loading capacity are 0.54, 0.53, 0.63 and 0.45 mg g(-1) for Ni2+, CO2+, Cu2+ and Pb2+,. The ability of method for repeatable recovery of trace ion are 99.0, 98.9, 99.2 and 98.8 with R.S.D. of 1.4, 1.3, 1.2 and 1.4 for Ni2+, CO2+, Cu2+ and Pb2+. The low detection limits of these elements in this technique make it a superior alternative to UV-vis and in several applications, also an alternative to ICP-MS techniques. The method has been successfully applied for these metals content evaluation in some real samples including natural water, leaves of spinach and cow liver. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.