Assaying gold purity in placer gold

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thesilverfox111

Active member
Joined
Nov 14, 2011
Messages
39
If I were to send in placer gold to a lab to get the gold and other metals (mostly silver) purity levels assayed what would the best most accurate type of assay to do?

I have sold placer gold to a company that smelts it then does and XRF on the bar then pays based on that but I am not happy with this company for a couple different reasons so would like to have my gold pre assayed by another lab before selling next time.

There is another gold buying company that sends the gold to a lab that does fire assay then pays based on that. But I would like to get an independent assay from a lab or labs that aren't buying the gold so that they have no vested interest in the gold.

When I phoned around to some local labs (I'm in BC Canada) the couple of them that said they could do it said they needed about 10 grams of it and would fire assay it and would give my gold back afterwards.
I thought 10 grams was quite a bit to do a fire assay on but both labs said the same thing. Is this typical for assaying placer gold by fire assay?
 
Back in the day, a pennyweight (1/20th) of an ounce or 1.555 grams was requested to fire assay bullion samples. Today with the value of the metal substantially higher many assayers run fire assays (in triplicate) with 3/4 of a gram. Of course 3/4 of a gram leaves no room for redoing a sample so I would peg the minimum required of a good assay house at 1 gram.
 
Thank you Lou and 4metals. Makes me think that there really is no refiner/buyer here in BC Canada that is set up to do these kinds of things.

The one buyer with the xrf has a very bad reputation locally here now that I am hearing more and more lately.
And the other buyer isn't a refiner. They send the gold to New York apparently where it is smelted and assayed then they pay based on that after giving you a deposit for the gold.

Lou I appreciate your help via PM and email and hope we can work something out. Is there any concern for a Canadian sending gold to the USA? I know there is no issue with me receiving gold from the USA as Canada Customs doesn't charge duties on gold but maybe things are different sending gold the other way?
 
4metals said:
Back in the day, a pennyweight (1/20th) of an ounce or 1.555 grams was requested to fire assay bullion samples. Today with the value of the metal substantially higher many assayers run fire assays (in triplicate) with 3/4 of a gram. Of course 3/4 of a gram leaves no room for redoing a sample so I would peg the minimum required of a good assay house at 1 gram.
I second everything you said.
 
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