# Cost for setting up a gold refinery



## Seevesh (Sep 6, 2011)

Hello all,

Please can you assist me, i am looking to setup a world class state of the art gold refinery, in South Africa. What are the average costs with regards to doing this?


----------



## nickvc (Sep 6, 2011)

I would estimate $500,000 to set up a refinery using the latest technologies plus the cost of a professional advisor to design and set up the plant.


----------



## Noxx (Sep 7, 2011)

Without any details, it's like asking; how much costs a house ?


----------



## 4metals (Sep 7, 2011)

Noxx is correct, you can set up rather inexpensively if you only want to process a few ounces. what will your feedstock be and what quantities? What purity are you looking for in your end product? And now for the big question, what do you currently know about refining? 

Answer these questions and you will get a good idea of start-up costs.


----------



## Lou (Sep 7, 2011)

Figure $100,000 in getting a good consultant for a few months time. Hand him the company credit card and let him go to town!

Consider also that you'll need to get instrumentation (ICP, XRF, fire assay/ spark-OES) and that'll run about $500,000 for middle of the range equipment purchased new. Also budget another $30,000 a year for maintenance of said equipment and consumables/standard solutions etc..

If you're doing gold in absurd volume (5000 ozt/day), it's cheapest to chlorinate and then electro-refine. You'll also need to set up a silver cell to recover the silver and the gold that reports in the silver chloride during the Miller process. Don't forget the baghouse and scrubber.


You'll need a way to control waste and also mitigate fumes. New equipment for that is several hundred thousand. 

Several hundred thousand dollars for the large induction melters you'll want to have. 

Everything depends on volume, but I'd say about a million US would set you up with something to be very, very proud of when showing clients.


----------



## mrsam (Mar 5, 2020)

Hey Lou, do you know any refinery starting experts in your rolodex that would be willing to oversee a new refinery build overseas like you suggested? I'd be quite interested to know them. Thanks, Sam.


----------



## mrsam (Mar 5, 2020)

We'd be looking to start a refinery with upwards of 100 kilos per day initially. So if I can find someone to help fully construct and build out the most up to date, efficient and environmentally safe plant for us I'd be ready to meet and talk to this person asap. Thanks!


----------



## 4metals (Mar 6, 2020)

Never ceases to amaze me that people can come up with those quantities of gold in need of refining but have no idea about getting someone to get it going. 

And most come and post the question never to return.


----------



## patnor1011 (Mar 8, 2020)

Because these are the people who plan to refine gold which they got offered in email from (insert any african country) prince.
Most of them can supply you with pictures of suitcases or boxes filled with gold they got in said email. 
If there is a picture it must be right no?


----------



## snoman701 (Mar 8, 2020)

With a home location in the USA no less. It's really impressive. 

On Edit...just noticed they are not building it in the US. 

Being able to consistently source/refine 5 million a day in gold, on what? realistically 0.6% gross.

Assembling not only the technical capacity to do it, then all of the EHS to support the operation, but also the analytical capacity to prove you are doing it. 

I just have trouble seeing the market having an opening for a new guy, that doesn't already have the technical know how to put it all together. But, that is a world that I have little experience in. The one where you have a dream, and a checkbook that can speed the learning curve. 

Best of luck to you.


----------

