Gold meltng question! Please help!

[nicholas]

Hello all,

I am new to this so please bare with me.

When it comes to melting scrap gold (like jewelry) into ingots and bars, is it ok to mix all different Karats together (example: 10kt, 24kt,14kt) all in the same crucible? Or will this depreciate the overall value of the potential brick? Is it wiser to segregate the Karat types? Like a 14kt ingot, an 18kt ingot?

I know only so much so I wish to go about this with the most caution necessary.

Thank you for your time!

 

[jimdoc]

Hello all,

I am new to this so please bare with me.

When it comes to melting scrap gold (like jewelry) into ingots and bars, is it ok to mix all different Karats together (example: 10kt, 24kt,14kt) all in the same crucible? Or will this depreciate the overall value of the potential brick? Is it wiser to segregate the Karat types? Like a 14kt ingot, an 18kt ingot?

I know only so much so I wish to go about this with the most caution necessary.

Thank you for your time!

What is your purpose of melting it?

Jim

 

[Harold_V]

A great deal depends on your agenda. If your purpose is to sell to a major refiner and you wish to have an assay performed prior to shipment, so you know the content of the ingot in question, that may be acceptable, but you'd have to be vigilant in stirring the heat well, to ensure a homogenous pour.

It is quite common for thieves to melt before selling, thus the gold can't be identified, so consider the fact that by melting your gold, you may bring suspicion upon yourself. Local authorities may make life difficult for you, even if you're legitimate. Make the decision to melt only after considering all the potential problems it can bring.

Harold

 

[galenrog]

Harold makes a point I had not thought of. I normally melt small smelted buttons into larger bars and had never thought that thieves and other less than honest brokers turn karat jewelry into bars also.

Once again, lessons are learned from the master. Thank you, Harold.

 

[rickbb]

My opinion is that it will lessen the value.

Not all karat is made the same, some countries where quality is not as important add lead to the mix. Re-melting with any lead will make the whole ingot harder to refine.

As Harold has pointed out, you'd be taking a known, highly sellable product and turning it into an unknown and possibly suspect product.

 

[cmiller92]

At least he waited 4 minutes from joining to post....count them...a whole 4

 

[bswartzwelder]

Like mentioned previously, unless the gold is refined first, you will end up with a mess that will be hard to determine the true value. There are numerous choices in front of you right now. Here are only three.

1. Just melt everything together and have a blob where it will be difficult to accurately determine the value. This takes no more knowledge than how to fire up a torch.

2. Refine it into pure gold whereby you will know exactly how much gold is there, and therefore have a basis for determining the value. Refining it may be a cumbersome process. Not knowing what other metals might be involved could be very time consuming in trying to sort out the mess and which process might work and which process might not work. This method could literally take months if not years of study to know what you are doing.

3. Sell it on the open market. Some people here on the forum may buy it, but you could probably get more for it on eBay. This method is the simplest. You don't have to mess around with chemicals, torches, ovens, or furnaces. You will not be subjecting those around you to the dangerous/toxic chemicals. In the end, this may bring you the most money for the gold you have.