Average yield?

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Goldman94

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 31, 2020
Messages
89
What's your guys' average yield when refining scrap karat gold? I just did a batch today and got a yield of 94.2% and was wondering if thats in the ballpark of being acceptable? Granted I do have some AR filers that are covered in solution and apparnelty i missed a tiny bit of gold dust, which I still have sitting in my beaker.

But I was just curious as to what you guys normally get for a yield
 
I haven't done any karat gold in a while, but from an old note, on a single piece of 18K the math said 1.648 and I got 1.600 on the button. You can save some losses by saving your material until you have a bigger batch to work with.

We already know you had problems with the nitric leach, and that could well be where the rest of the gold is. With the loss amount there, I would save the waste and try to find how much is there. This will give accountability for your missing gold, and give you some more, less costly, experience.
 
For me, it varies. I think my yield is worse with 10K as compared to 14K or 18K. Lately, I have been getting 98%+ for mainly 14K scrap. I refine about 1 1/2 to 2 ozt per batch. I got as low as 94% in the past, but I think I did some miscalculation. If the 10K is actually only 9.5K, the max you can get is 95% of a plumb 10K. It's about 96-97% if the 14K is actually 13.5K. It all depends on how close the items are to the Karat hallmark. I look for at least a 95% yield before I question anything.
 
How did you calculate the gold yield, as pointed out in the US you are allowed to be 1/2 karat under and still be marked and you can bet the manufacturers will make the item as low as legally possible :shock:
 
nickvc said:
How did you calculate the gold yield, as pointed out in the US you are allowed to be 1/2 karat under and still be marked and you can bet the manufacturers will make the item as low as legally possible :shock:

Haha okay so if that were the case then my yield would be 97.7%
 
Actually, old jewelry made before the plumb laws had an allowance of up to 1 karat under what was stamped. Any cast, solid piece could be up to 1/2 karat under, but the regulations also allowed up to another 1/2 karat if there was solder involved. Unfortunately, there is no way to know if a piece was produced before or after the regulations changed. I wouldn't be surprised if there is still jewelry being made to the more lax standards.

Dave
 
When I buy jewelry, I always estimate the value as 1 karat under. Usually I'm getting old stuff from the pre plumb law days, but even if it's newer, there's still that possibility. I assume the larger manufacturers stick close to current regulations, but you never know with a smaller company. There really isn't anyone policing them.

It's why I pretty much stopped buying "sterling" jewelry. Anyone with ten bucks can but a "sterling" or "925" stamp and use it on whatever they make. Of course, that's true with gold as well. I have a bunch of stuff I've gotten over the years that's stamped, but it's just gold plated at best. Buyer beware.

Dave
 
The piece I mentioned above was made in Israel. I have no idea how old it was. I tend to forget about the plumb laws.
 
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