5 different pretreatment methods are used to determine the arsenic content in metallic ores.The relative applicability of the methods is compared.The results show that when nitric acid-sulfuric acid method,reverse aqua regia method and aqua regia method dissolve samples,inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry can determine the content ccurately and quickly,and the precisions are 0.85 %-4.29 %,1.17 %-3.74 % and1.14 %-4.34 % respectively;hydrochloric acid-nitric acid-perchloric acid process is not fit for the arsenic content determination;alkali fusion separation-iodometry process is not fit for the samples with high tin and antimony content,the precision is 1.09 %-6.76 %.The nitric acid-sulfuric acid method is simple and fast,at the same time fit for the arsenic content determination when the carbon and sulfur contents are high,and can be used as the preferential method when it comes to the arsenic content determination in metallic ores.