Grams. Pennyweights. Troy Ounce. Pounds…. What do you use? What’s best for you is best for me? (your refiner).

Here are some helpful ideas and tips that I’ve found to be important factors when preparing materials to send off for processing.

When preparing your scrap for reclamation, there are two ways you can send in your materials. You can send it in as mixed karat scrap or send it in broken down (separated) into individual karats (10,14,16,18,22,24). We will weigh it in as you send it and mark it accordingly on your receiving ticket which will always be emailed to you for your records. 

1. Always, always, make sure you let your rep or company know if it is straight melt with no stones or WITH stones to be processed for stone recovery and return. Sometimes you may have both; please make sure that the bags with stones for recovery are marked inside and/or outside the bag “with diamonds”. This is important especially if you are sending both lots in the same package. The better you communicate your materials and your needs; the less errors that could potentially be made before processing (receipt and weigh in) and the happier everyone will be at settlement. Trust me, happiness is what everyone wants out of the experience.

2. There is no advantage or disadvantage to sending your gold in as mixed karat scrap. It’s all going to get melted together in most cases anyway. One main disadvantage to not separating your Karats is that it’s more difficult to pin down close to exact content of pure gold before it ships, before it’s melted and before its fire assayed. What I mean by this is let’s say Tom is sending 500 grams of mixed karat. Usually his material runs 48%. This particular lot happens to have more 10kt or more 14kt. The market is up $15 and Tom wants to hedge gold before we receive the melt and assay his materials but we don’t know how much gold to hedge.

We can get close, give or take a few toz, but we’ll either be over or under.

Now. Tom calls up and says I’ve got 509 grams of 10 kt and 339.4 grams of 14kt and 24.8 grams of 18 kt…. much easier now to plug numbers in and know what we’re dealing with before shipping, processing and fire assaying.

So if Tom wants to hedge gold or his Rep wants to be prepared to hedge gold at anytime during the process before settlement, he’ll know Tom has X amount and both sides have helped each other and everyone is on the same page. This scenario is most helpful when a client would like to hedge and take an interest free 90% advance.

3. The other issue that can occur rarely is difference in weights. Here’s a perfect story to share. About 10-plus years ago I reported a discrepancy in weights. This occurred at a former company. My receiving department opened my clients box and his weights on 14 kt were perfect, we weighed in little bit more on 18kt but 10kt was off by 13.10 toz. WOWSER!!! That was a lot of gold to be off. I was notified and I immediately called my client and advised of the weight discrepancy. I have never been yelled at and cursed at by someone as bad as in those 60 seconds. The conversation ended with “find my gold, I packed that box myself *expletives, I’m so p*ssed.”

Well, less than 15 minutes after he hung up on me, he called back and noted that he had a bag of 13.10 toz Karat gold with stones still in his safe on the top shelf that he had accounted for but didn’t pack. He hung up again but never apologized and we moved forward for many more years until he sold his businesses. My point is, had he sent mixed karat gold in and I was off 13.10 toz or even just 1/2 toz we wouldn’t know how or where that shortage came from and the onus falls on one of us. There is always a logical explanation and in that case I sure was happy he sent in separated by karat.

It all comes back to helping each other in the process. Communicate and prepare whatever way is best for you and your business. My clients are my team – we coach one another and help each other at all times. Best wishes and Continued success.

Find more helpful tips at Geibrefining.com.

As always, if you have questions, comments, concerns and needs please don’t hesitate to contact me even just to chat. 401-595-4516 or [email protected]