Seeking Expert Guidance on Establishing a Medium-Scale Gold and Precious Metal Extraction Refinery in the UK

[virsons]

Hello everyone,

I'm planning to embark on an exciting venture to establish a medium-scale gold and precious metal extraction refinery here in the UK, with an aim of extracting around 20KG a day in long term and start from a low scale of 2KG to 5KG a day. I have some connections who have been successfully running some small scale refining setups in Asia but none here in UK. I am reaching out to this knowledgeable community for your invaluable advice and guidance.

I would be grateful if anyone could shed light on the following:

1. Existing Refineries: Are there any refineries of this scale already operating in the UK?
2. Legal Compliance: What specific legal requirements must be met to establish and run a refinery?
3. Licenses and Approvals: Which licenses and approvals are necessary, and which regulatory bodies oversee this process?
4. Ground-Level Experience: I would love to hear from those who have hands-on experience or have undertaken similar projects. Please share your insights!
5. Advisors: Can anyone recommend advisors or consultants who specialize in setting up gold and precious metal refineries?
6. Waste Management: What are the best practices for managing refinery waste, and what are the legal requirements in the UK?

Any advice, contacts, or resources you can share would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your support and expertise!

Best regards,
Virsons

 

[Yggdrasil]

Welcome.
Do you have a steady stream of feed stock?
How much a week do they supply?

I'm a bit concerned that you start in the wrong end of this.

If you indeed are planning to start a small/midsize refinery you need to spend some serious money.
How is your insight into the process of refining?
Or have you someone as partner that can guide you in that matter?
We have a few UK members that are in this business.
I'm hoping they will chime in.

 

[virsons]

Welcome.
Do you have a steady stream of feed stock?
How much a week do they supply?

I'm a bit concerned that you start in the wrong end of this.

If you indeed are planning to start a small/midsize refinery you need to spend some serious money.
How is your insight into the process of refining?
Or have you someone as partner that can guide you in that matter?
We have a few UK members that are in this business.
I'm hoping they will chime in.

Hi @Yggdrasil - Please advise when and how can we connect? Maybe Phone call or WhatApp

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hi @Yggdrasil - Please advise when and how can we connect? Maybe Phone call or WhatApp

First of all, we do all in the open forum so others can learn as well.
Next I'm not in UK and have no idea of what rules apply there.

 

[virsons]

Hi @Yggdrasil - Please advise when and how can we connect? Maybe Phone call or WhatApp

Dear @Yggdrasil,

I appreciate as all these are very valid questions.

Do you have a steady stream of feed stock? - This is little bit tricky to answer at this stage as I would like like to know and learn about import regulations for UK. We have contracts for raw material/regular supply chain in India but UK is a new market I'm exploring and learning.

How much a week do they supply? - We are initially looking to start with 2KG to 5KN with plan to scale upto 20KG

I'm a bit concerned that you start in the wrong end of this. - Your concern is genuine and fair, hence I'm seeking some advise as UK market is new for me to explore.

If you indeed are planning to start a small/midsize refinery you need to spend some serious money. - We have investment backing and some experienced operations team members but none of those have UK experience so hope this group members can guide to right direction.

How is your insight into the process of refining? - I personally haven't got much experience but my family runs this in India and I will be supporting them with UK research as I'm based in UK

Or have you someone as partner that can guide you in that matter? - Not at this stage but we are open for such discussions

We have a few UK members that are in this business. - Any reference to those will be of great help.

I'm hoping they will chime in.

Many thanks,
Virsons

 

[4metals]

I typed this response on your other identical post and as we do not allow double postings it was deleted before i could post my response so i will start over. In the future please post one thread and follow it through to completion for the best results.

Again, welcome to the forum.

We have many members here from the UK and your side of the pond who will surely chime in here to help you. I would suggest you start here on open forum and discuss what you want to refine and what quantities of these scraptypes you will be processing. The UK members can help with permitting information and regulations but our refining members worldwide will shed light on the very foundation of what you want to build your business upon, chemistry.

I am retired now but I have designed and commissioned refineries and taught the refining skills in Europe, Asia, and the Americas (do not read this the wrong way, I am not looking for more work!). My experience has taught me that most folks looking to do what you are looking to do lack the basic foundation to technically build and run a refinery. Which is, of course, why you are looking for help. But a discussion about what you are doing and how you want to proceed will help you and prepare you to better understand the needs and make better choices when hiring a consultant. So I strongly suggest you participate here to "get your feet wet".

If you follow this link it will take you to a member who didn't start with us and was ill advised on some of her equipment purchases and had serious losses. We helped her, as we can help you because starting out on the right foot is more important than most realize.

 

[Yggdrasil]

I typed this response on your other identical post and as we do not allow double postings it was deleted before i could post my response so i will start over. In the future please post one thread and follow it through to completion for the best results.

Again, welcome to the forum.

We have many members here from the UK and your side of the pond who will surely chime in here to help you. I would suggest you start here on open forum and discuss what you want to refine and what quantities of these scraptypes you will be processing. The UK members can help with permitting information and regulations but our refining members worldwide will shed light on the very foundation of what you want to build your business upon, chemistry.

I am retired now but I have designed and commissioned refineries and taught the refining skills in Europe, Asia, and the Americas (do not read this the wrong way, I am not looking for. more work!). My experience has taught me that most folks looking to do what you are looking to do lack the basic foundation to technically build and run a refinery. Which is, of course, why you are looking for help. But a discussion about what you are doing and how you want to proceed will help you and prepare you to better understand the needs and make better choices when hiring a consultant. So I strongly suggest you participate here to "get your feet wet".

If you follow this link it will take you to a member who didn't start with us and was I'll advised on some of her equipment purchases and has serious losses. We helped her, as we can help you because starting out on the right foot is more important than most realize.

Sorry about that mate.

 

[anachronism]

There are a couple of gold refiners here that operate on a small to medium scale. There are a lot more who claim to do so, when in fact they are passing their product elsewhere. I've not used any of them that I could rely upon completely to be completely transparent.

Jon

 

[nickvc]

I ran my own refinery for some years in the UK and I suppose i was refining about 10 kilos a week .
Depending on feed stock you do not need massive premises but you do need excellent security on many levels and again dependent on feed stock you do not need a large staff, you will need good fume scrubbing and provable safe and legal waste disposal , licenses to purchase some reactants and a very large bank balance to finance the operation.
We have a large Asian jewellery sector in the UK who may be able to purchase some of your final product to some degree but I’m not sure what you hope to do with the balance , even producing 9999 gold will not get you full spot as you presumably do not have LBM accreditation so you will get 99.5 % at best Im guessing as it can’t go onto the bullion market without those stamps that are accepted worldwide .
I think we need more information on your material and what the end game is going to be.

 

[virsons]

I typed this response on your other identical post and as we do not allow double postings it was deleted before i could post my response so i will start over. In the future please post one thread and follow it through to completion for the best results.

Again, welcome to the forum.

We have many members here from the UK and your side of the pond who will surely chime in here to help you. I would suggest you start here on open forum and discuss what you want to refine and what quantities of these scraptypes you will be processing. The UK members can help with permitting information and regulations but our refining members worldwide will shed light on the very foundation of what you want to build your business upon, chemistry.

I am retired now but I have designed and commissioned refineries and taught the refining skills in Europe, Asia, and the Americas (do not read this the wrong way, I am not looking for more work!). My experience has taught me that most folks looking to do what you are looking to do lack the basic foundation to technically build and run a refinery. Which is, of course, why you are looking for help. But a discussion about what you are doing and how you want to proceed will help you and prepare you to better understand the needs and make better choices when hiring a consultant. So I strongly suggest you participate here to "get your feet wet".

If you follow this link it will take you to a member who didn't start with us and was ill advised on some of her equipment purchases and had serious losses. We helped her, as we can help you because starting out on the right foot is more important than most realize.

Dear @4metals,

Many thanks for your support and kind words and I honestly appreciate it.

I agree, I still have a lot to learn and understand, hence I'm here in the forum seeking fair and genuine advise and guidance on UK permitting information and regulations. Once these are bit clear then I agree next stage will be to learn more on the setup guidance.

Surely I'm happy to reach out and speciality consultants who got UK knowledge and experience.

Last but not the least, any suggestions and guidance from your end is very much appreciated and happy to learn from your experience or references.

Kind Regards,
Virsons

 

[4metals]

If the regulations are anything like the USA in the UK, there are different import restrictions on different materials. And there are turn-key systems that are tailored to specific waste streams. Because of these specific turn key systems, permitting may be easier because a lot of these systems have a "track record" with the environmental agencies which govern air emissions and waste generation.

If you plan to bring in doré gold it requires a different approach than karat gold which requires a different approach from e-scrap. And these can all effect which environmental agencies you will need to deal with as well as the required permissions to bring this material into the UK.

This is why the 1 line of questioning all who have responded have in common is what type of material are you looking to process?