Working with Your Refiner

Guidelines for developing a refined relationship

Help Yourself by Helping the Refiner

Jewelry makers must realize that no business arrangement is one-sided. Refiners have to meet the needs of their customers to stay in business, but there are things that those customers can do to help their refiners.

Provide as much information as possible. Every lot you send to your refiner should be marked with your company name, address, phone, and primary contact information. Your refiner is willing to do many things for you, but becoming the Sherlock Holmes of hard scrap shouldn’t be one of them. Unfortunately, “phantom lots” are fairly common. (One refiner, after receiving a phantom lot with no return address and no information, tracked down the manufacturer by the hallmark on one of the rings in the shipment.)

In addition, the manufacturer should provide information about the materials: gross and net weights, container count, type of material (sweeps, polishings, karat scrap), and, when possible, an estimate of gold weight. If you’ve been dealing with the same refiner for some time and have recently changed anything about your operation—started working in platinum or switched to a high chromium rouge, for example—it’s best to mention it so the refiner can tailor his methods to suit your material.

Call ahead. This is a simple courtesy, but it shows you understand that the refiner has other customers. You can also call to get an idea of how busy the refining schedule is and what the expected turnaround time will be.

Segregate your materials. If you throw your polishings, bench sweeps, ultrasonic sludge, and karat scrap all into one container, your refiner will process it nonetheless. But keeping your materials separated can speed the refining process. Segregation doesn’t mean you have to keep your 10k, 14k, and 18k separate. But wherever possible, gold should be kept separate from other precious metals, the precious metals should be kept apart from the base metals, and the barrel you use for bench sweeps shouldn’t also serve as the shop’s wastebasket. The key word is homogeneous—keep like materials together.

Tight inventory controls, such as a “gold book” (more formally known as a Precious Metal Control Account), can also help you figure out what you can realistically expect in your refining returns. For example, if your book shows that you brought in 1,000 oz. of gold for manufacture and shipped out 700 oz. in finished product, you can reasonably expect that your scrap will contain something close to 300 oz. of gold.

Communicate your expectations. If you generate 1,000 oz. of gold scrap but only 100 oz. of silver and even less of platinum, you may not feel it’s necessary to segregate the metals. But it’s still in your best interest to let your refiner know what’s in the scrap, and whether you want the refiner to assay for those other metals. While all refiners will automatically assay for gold, they will not go hunting for other metals—platinum is the most common request—unless they’re told to. The reason for this is twofold: First, it’s costly and time-consuming for the refiner (and that cost is passed on to the manufacturer); second, it avoids potential conflict.

Open communication is the way around a potentially vital point of contention-the preparation and sampling of materials. To gain a better understanding of the processing required, manufacturers should observe and participate (“witness”) at least once as their lot is processed for the sampling. (For more about this, read “Assaying Basics.”)

Help Yourself by Letting the Refiner Help You

So what can you get out of a refiner besides bricks of gold or nice checks?

For one thing, knowledge.

A refinery is a repository of knowledge—a group of experts ready to educate, analyze, and improve client companies. These services can take the form of tips, literature, or surveys of manufacturing operations to determine how to maximize refining returns.

Have a refiner visit and analyze your operations. This can be especially eye-opening. Refiners know all the places in which precious metals can get tangled or lost, places that jewelry manufacturers might not even consider. One refiner, for example, showed a customer how a weak vacuum system at his plant was caused by dust-clogged filters—and that dust was laden with countless grams of precious metal. When they inspected the baghouse on the roof of the plant, the doors were open and the excess dust was venting into the atmosphere. While the manufacturer had been focused on getting product out the door, profits had been taking flight off the roof.

Ask what services are available within a refinery. This can save you money, too. For example, one increasingly popular service is the return of stones. For manufacturers, having jewelers pop gemstones out of returned or scrap jewelry not only is laborious, but also can lead to stones being chipped or otherwise damaged. Instead, manufacturers can ask a refiner to handle it for them. The refiner will dissolve the metal, then filter the stones from the solution and return them for re-use. The metal will then be chemically precipitated back out of solution and refined.

Refiners may also be able to help with hazardous waste and compliance—runoff and fluids from processes such as plating can contain ample amounts of precious metals, as can sludge from precious metal wastewater treatment systems. Refiners may be able to look over your HAZMAT manifests to be sure they’re properly coded, potentially saving you from fines. They may also be able to provide approved receptacles for disposing of waste. It’s just another service to ask about.

And there you have it: A refining relationship from which you can obtain much more than melted metal.