A straightforward tandem column separation procedure is presented for the separation of Sr, Nd, Pb, and Hf from silicate materials. It allows rapid purification, without any intervening evaporation, of these four elements of great interest in Earth science and cosmochemistry. After sample loading, the upper Sr Spec column adsorbs Sr and Pb, while the lower TODGA Spec column adsorbs Hf and Nd. Strontium-lead and hafnium–neodymium elements are then back-extracted from the Sr Spec and TODGA Spec columns, respectively. The whole separation procedure, including column setup, cleaning, and pre-conditioning, takes approximately eight hours for separating a batch of 25 samples. The proposed procedure offers significant improvement in separation efficiency of these often-used four elements, compared with conventional four column methods. Fractions of Sr, Nd and Pb are then measured by TIMS and the Hf fraction is determined by MC-ICP-MS. The stability of this procedure was demonstrated by replicate measurements of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd, ¹⁷⁶Hf/¹⁷⁷Hf, ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb, ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb and ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb isotope ratios of eight international silicate rock reference materials, spanning a wide range of bulk compositions. The analytical results obtained in this study agree well with published data. The external reproducibility (2RSD, n = 8) of standard BCR-2 was ±0.0026% for ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, ±0.0020% for ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd, ±0.0049% for ¹⁷⁶Hf/¹⁷⁷Hf, and ±0.026–0.034% for ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb, ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb and ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb isotope ratios.

A sample from the top of the Banxi Group (early Neoproterozoic) in Hunan Province (South China) was dated by the SHRIMP zircon U-Pb method. The resulting age of 725 ± 10 Ma probably solves the debate between the synglacial and the preglacial correlation of the Liantuo Formation and indicates that the Liantuo Formation most likely correlates with the preglacial Banxi Group. Since the Banxi (Danzhou) Group is upwardly transitional to the glacial Jiangkou Group, the age becomes a new maximum age constraint on the onset of the Jiangkou glaciation, which therefore most likely correlates with the Sturtian glaciation.