With the U.S. Presidential election just days away, it’s worth noting that the results of an election (or even predictions of an election’s outcome) can shake things up in the economy. When there’s political uncertainty, investors sometimes flock to “safe haven” assets to protect their wealth, driving up their prices. This can cause the price of gold and other precious metals to jump or dip as investors react to new economic signals.

Market Trends and Demand Drivers

Understanding the economics of precious metal refining begins with knowing the market trends and demand drivers that govern their prices. These include:

Investment Demand: Historically, precious metals have been sought after as a hedge against inflation and economic uncertainty. During times of geopolitical tension or market volatility, investors flock to these metals, driving up demand and prices.

Industrial Applications: Precious metals play pivotal roles in numerous industries, including electronics, automotive, and healthcare. Demand from these sectors is driven by technological advancements, regulatory requirements, and shifts in consumer preferences.

Jewelry and Ornaments: The ornamental appeal of precious metals remains a significant factor in shaping demand. Cultural traditions, celebrations, and changing fashion trends influence the demand for gold, silver, and platinum jewelry, impacting refining economics.

Central Bank Reserves: Central banks across the globe maintain reserves of precious metals as a form of financial security. Changes in these reserves, whether through buying or selling, can influence market sentiment and pricing.

Supply-Side Dynamics

On the supply side, the economics of precious metal refining are tied closely to extraction processes, mining output, and recycling efforts.

Mining Production: The majority of precious metals are extracted from mines scattered across the globe. Fluctuations in mining output, driven by factors such as labor disputes, geological challenges, or regulatory hurdles, directly impact the availability of raw materials for refining.

Recycling and Scrap: Recycling plays a vital role in supplementing the supply of precious metals. Refining companies like Noble Metal source significant portions of their raw materials from recycled electronics, jewelry, and industrial byproducts. The efficiency of these recycling processes can influence the economics of refining.

Environmental Regulations: Stringent environmental regulations governing mining and refining operations can impact production costs and, consequently, pricing. Compliance with environmental standards requires investments in sustainable technologies and practices, adding a layer of complexity to refining economics.

Pricing Mechanisms

The pricing of precious metals is governed by various mechanisms designed to reflect supply-demand dynamics and market sentiment.

London Fixing: If you deal in precious metals, you’re almost certainly familiar with the “London Fix,” a process that sets the price of precious metals, such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, in the London bullion market. It is currently facilitated by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). These prices serve as reference points for transactions globally, providing market participants with a transparent pricing mechanism.

Futures Markets: Futures contracts allow investors and hedgers to speculate on the future price movements of precious metals. The futures market provides valuable insights into market sentiment and serves as a tool for risk management for refining companies and investors alike.

Over-the-Counter (OTC) Trading: OTC markets facilitate direct transactions between buyers and sellers outside of traditional exchanges. These markets offer flexibility and confidentiality but may lack the transparency of exchange-traded transactions.

Vote for Prosperity!

The economics of metal refining are a complicated blend of precious metal market trends, supply and demand dynamics, and pricing mechanisms…making them subject to constant change.

As the global economy evolves, the economics of precious metal refining will continue to be shaped by mining and recycling methods, world markets, and even the political landscape! As a seller of precious metal scrap, understanding the interplay between these elements and working with a refiner you trust will help ensure that you always get the most for your metals.

Interested in getting top dollar for your precious metal scrap? Vote Noble Metal Refining! Our OPEN DOOR POLICY ensures transparency in everything we do, including metal pricing and payouts.

Click Here to Get Started

The post Elect to Know More: Precious Metal Market Trends and Pricing Dynamics first appeared on Noble Metal Refining.

Precious metal refining involves the purification of metals like gold (Au), silver (Ag), platinum (Pt), and palladium (Pd) from raw materials such as ores, scrap metal, or electronic components. The process typically involves several chemical and physical steps to separate the precious metals from impurities. Here are a few of the important chemical principles and reactions involved:

Collection and Initial Processing

Scrap metal, such as jewelry, dental material or old electronics is first collected and sorted. The initial processing may involve:

• Mechanical Separation: Shredding and grinding the scrap to break it down into smaller pieces.
• Magnetic Separation: Using magnets to remove ferrous metals (iron and steel) from non-ferrous metals (copper, aluminum, precious metals).

Smelting

Smelting involves heating the scrap metal to high temperatures to melt it. This process often uses a furnace and a reducing agent (like carbon in the form of coke) to help separate the metal from its oxides and other impurities. The reducing agent reacts with the metal oxides in the scrap, reducing them to the pure metal. For example, in the case of gold:

2Au(OH)₃ +3O₂ → 2Au + 3H₂O +3O₂

Cupellation

Cupellation is a refining process used to separate silver and gold from base metals such as lead. The dore or bullion is melted and then heated in a cupel, which is a porous container made of bone ash or a similar material. The lead and other base metals oxidize and are absorbed into the cupel, leaving behind the precious metals. The precious metals remain in the metallic form and are collected for further purification.

Chemical Separation

Chemical methods such as aqua regia (Latin for “royal water”)  or cyanidation are often employed to further purify the precious metals obtained from cupellation. Aqua regia, a mixture of nitric acid (HNO₃) and hydrochloric acid (HCl), is particularly effective for dissolving gold, and separating precious gems from the metal. The gold chloride complex formed can be reduced back to metallic gold using a reducing agent such as sulfur dioxide or hydrazine. Cyanidation involves dissolving gold in a cyanide solution. The gold forms a soluble complex ion, which can then be separated from the rest of the material.

Electrolysis

Electrolysis is another common method for refining precious metals, especially copper and silver. In this process, the impure metal is dissolved in a suitable electrolyte solution, and an electric current is passed through the solution. The metal ions migrate towards the cathode (negative electrode), where they plate out as pure metal. This electrolytic refining process can achieve very high purity levels.

Final Purification

Depending on the desired purity level, the refined metals may undergo further purification steps such as zone refining, distillation, or selective precipitation.

Overall, refining metals involves a combination of physical and chemical processes aimed at separating the valuable metals from impurities to obtain high-purity products suitable for re-use in a range of applications, including jewelry-making, manufacturing, and investment.

Noble Metal Refining processes a wide range of materials containing gold, silver, platinum and palladium for our clients. The expertise employed in our refinery and on-site, state-of-the-art laboratory enables us to extract and refine both high- and low-grade materials containing these precious metals.

Understanding the chemistry behind precious metal refining helps us improve our processes, ensure safety, and drive innovation, ultimately contributing to more efficient and sustainable use of precious resources.

Click Here to learn more about the metal refining process we go through to make sure all of your precious metal material is captured and refined.

The post Refining 101: The Chemistry Behind Precious Metal Refining first appeared on Noble Metal Refining.

Precious metal refining typically involves heating the metal to 2300 degrees in a container called a crucible in an induction furnace. Proprietary chemicals are added which allows the removal of undesirable waste (called slag) leaving a homogenous metal bar which can be analyzed with complete accuracy to determine the purity of the metal sent to Noble Metal Refinery.

Methods of Refining

Precious metal refining involves the purification of metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium from raw materials such as ores, electronic components, or scrap metal. This specialized procedure typically involves a combination of physical and chemical processes to separate the valuable precious metals from impurities to obtain high-purity products suitable for re-use. Purified precious metal is used in a wide range of applications, including the making of jewelry, electronic and industrial components, health care devices, or for investment purposes. By recycling your scrap and returning it to the market in this way, you’re helping to reduce the need to mine new material.

There are several different processes employed for purifying metals depending on the type of metals being refined. It is critical to utilize the right process to achieve the highest quality results. Some of these processes are:

• Oxidation
• Smelting
• Cupellation
• Chemical Refining
• Electrolysis
• Distillation

How Noble Processes Your Precious Metal Scrap

At Noble Metal Refining, we refine and recycle a wide range of materials containing gold, silver, platinum and palladium for jewelers, pawn shops, dentists, dental labs and other industries. It’s important to choose a refiner known for handling precious metal scrap like yours to ensure proper processing and fair compensation. While the process varies by customer and the types of metal in the lots our customers send us, ours typically involves the following steps:

Receiving and Weighing: We receive your shipment in our securely monitored weigh-in room, and weigh it to determine accurate gross weights. We then call the customer to report the weight, and tag the lot for identification throughout the refining process.

Stone Removal: When processing jewelry scrap, it’s important to choose a refiner with the expertise to preserve and return gemstones from the jewelry scrap received for refining. Noble Metal uses a specialized chemical process called aqua regia to safely remove even the tiniest stones from the jewelry we refine. Stones recovered are returned to the customer along with their final payment.

Separating Precious from Non-Precious Metals: Noble Metal utilizesthermal oxidation to incinerate all organic, non-precious material in the bench sweep lots we receive. The remaining precious metal material is then ball-milled into a fine, crushed powder which is sifted to separate non-ferrous (non-magnetic) metals and magnetic oversize materials.

Melt and Sample: After undergoing the process of oxidation and sifting to separate precious from non-precious metals in each lot, the non-ferrous metallics are smelted in the appropriate induction furnace. A flux is added to remove all impurities from the metal, which is then poured and cooled to form a homogenous metal cone or bar with a sample (pin-core) taken for analysis.

Analysis: This step involves testing the pin-core sample to determine metal purity. Noble utilizes state-of-the-art techniques in our on-site laboratory to quantify the purity of the gold, silver, platinum and palladium in your materials for the highest level of accuracy and accountability. Methods may include acid testing, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and fire assay to accurately assess the composition of the metals. Once analysis is complete, Noble issues a detailed, easy-to-understand assay report showing payout on all metals refined.

Final Product: The refined metal is formed into precious metal bars, ingots or pellets, which are easier to handle and trade in the market.

Throughout the entire process, Noble adheres to rigorous quality control measures to ensure that the refined metal meets industry standards and our customers’ specifications. Once the refining and analysis is complete, customers receive payment based on the quantity and purity of the metals processed. Our flexible settlement options include payment in 24 Karat gold, gold or silver bullion products, ACH or wire transfer, or by check.

If you’d like to see for yourself how precious metal is refined, take our ONLINE REFINERY TOUR.

Better yet, contact us to SCHEDULE A VISIT to our Indianapolis refining facility and see your precious metals being refined with your own eyes! We’re proud of our transparent process, and would love to show you in person how your precious metal is refined.

The post How Precious Metal is Refined first appeared on Noble Metal Refining.

Fortunately, when choosing a refinery to handle your scrap metal refining, there are several questions you can ask to ensure that you’re being treated fairly and getting top dollar for your precious metal materials:

How long have you been in business?

It’s always a smart idea to seek out a reputable refiner that has a history of doing business in your industry. Whether you’re in the jewelry or pawn industry, the dental profession, or the death care industry, scrap metal refining and recycling can be an important aspect of your operation, and an often overlooked source of profit. Making sure the refiner you choose understands the ins and outs of your business is just good, common sense.

Are you a broker?

There are many brokers or “middle-men” out there who lead customers to believe that they are employed by a refinery. However, many are not and instead are actually taking a cut of the profit for bringing your business to a refinery. Be sure to ask the person you’re dealing with if they’re a broker or a refinery employee. You can get significantly more for your metals by dealing directly with the refinery.

How do you establish the price for my metals?

Metal prices fluctuate daily. Make sure you are receiving the current market price, and aren’t locked into a specific, static rate on your metal material lots. A great resource for precious metal spot prices and other news is kitco.com

Can I see your refining process for myself?

The best refineries are eager to show their customers how they do business. It’s called accountability, and it’s something you should expect and demand from your refiner. Find out if you can actually bring your metal lot in yourself and follow it through the refining process from weigh-in to the final assay. This is the best (and most interesting!) way of ensuring that you’re receiving transparent service and value.

Do you provide a detailed assay report?

An assay report summarizes the results of each metal lot you submit for refining and recycling. Not only does the assay report provide a verifiable record of transactions with your metal refiner, it can also help you know and understand the full value of the metals you are submitting for refining. Your refiner should be willing and able to walk you through your assay report so you fully understand how your metals are weighed, processed, and valued.

What are your settlement options?

All businesses that have their scrap metal refined are interested in prompt and easy payment options. Being paid by check, ACH or wire transfer are common options. But maybe you’d prefer to be paid in 24 karat gold or bullion products. Perhaps you’re interested in having a portion of your payment designated to a charity. Whatever your payment preferences are, be sure to ask upfront about the options so there are no surprises when it comes time to cash in.

For information about Noble Metal’s refining process, or to schedule a visit to our full-service industrial refinery, click here.

The post How to “Cleanup” on Scrap Metal Refining for Higher Business Profits. first appeared on Noble Metal Refining.