Knowing the purity level of your gold items is critical for getting a fair payout when selling them to gold smelters and refineries. Assay testing analyzes the precise metal composition through different methods. Understanding these gold testing processes can help sellers better evaluate offers.
Here’s a quick look at common assay approaches and what each method means for you as a gold seller.
Fire Assay
The fire assay method is one of the oldest and most trusted for verifying gold content. A sample is melted with lead oxide at high temperatures in a furnace. Impurities oxidize, leaving a lead button containing the gold.
This lead alloy gets cupelled to absorb the lead, producing pure gold prill. A fire assay provides a definitive analysis of parts per million but requires specialized equipment and skills.
X-Ray Fluorescence
XRF analyzers use X-ray beams to excite gold atoms and detect their elemental emission signature. Advanced XRF precisely identifies gold concentration along with other metals in an item.
Handheld XRF devices offer non-destructive analysis for buyers. But lower-end models may have wider margins of error in gold purity testing.
Mass Spectrometry
MS methods like ICP-MS bombard a gold sample with plasma to ionize and separate elements based on atomic mass and charge. This enables tracing ultra-low impurities down to the parts per billion range. But like fire assay, ICP-MS needs extensive sample preparation and operator expertise for gold purity testing.
What This Means for Sellers
Fire assays and mass spectrometry offer the highest accuracy for verifying the gold content of complex electronics scrap or dental metals. This gives sellers confidence in weight-based payouts.
For jewelry and gold coins, advanced XRF provides reliable in-office purity testing. Handheld XRF results may have a higher variance, so sellers should ask about calibration protocols.
Understand gold smelters’ testing capabilities before agreeing to sales. As experts in assay methods and precious metal refining, it’s essential to take note of rigorous analysis and precision standards for fair payouts to gold sellers. Get an instant quote or speak to a specialist like Bay Area Metals right now!
