Spin-lattice relaxation rates (1/T-1) of water protons in xanthan-chromium(III) solutions reveal a two exponential decay vs reaction time, suggesting a simple first order two-step reaction process of chromium ions A(k1) --> I (k2) --> P, where the letters symbolize the numbers of chromium ions (A) that can potentially react with xanthan, intermediate paramagnetic-xanthan sites (I), and chromium-xanthan gel sites (P), respectively; The following relations between the rate constants k(1) and k(2) and the initial concentrations of xanthan (P-o in mass %) and chromium(III) ions (C-o in mM) were derived : k(1) = [(1.69 +/- 0.24) x 10(-4)]C-o/P-o(1/2)(s(-1)) and k(2) = [(2.38 +/- 0.21) x 10(-5)]P-o(1/3)/C-o(s(-1)), indicating that the product of the two rate constants to be independent of the initial chromium(III) concentration. The activation energy of the second reaction step (gelation step, k(2)) was found to be 47.5 +/- 10 kJ/mol which is an acceptable agreement with results obtained by other techniques. The maximum number of chromium ions that bind to a xanthan monomer unit is estimated to be 0.16 under the experimental conditions.