Our process steps in detail

Consultancy and collection on-site

Our competent and metallography trained employees areglad to advise you. Optimise your processes and benefit from our long-standing experience. Of course we are also glad to provide you with the appropriate collection containers and organise collection on-site.

Receipt of goods

The recycling material that we receive from you is removed from the safe bag subject to ongoing video recording, weight control, the material is appropriately documented and the delivery note is provided with a barcode of the recording. This process enables a precise documentation of the receipt of goods for each customer position and is archived for you in case of resubmission. The material is now furnished with a refining material order number and the melting date. Upon request, you will receive an automatic receipt message with all relevant information via email.

Precious metals melting and bar casting

Your refining material is melted down by experienced employees in our foundry in a graphite crucible with the aid of smelting salts. The various metals of the precious metal alloys start to liquefy and the complete liquid scrap gold is cast into a suitable metal shape in which the liquid melt solidifies into a homogeneous bar. The bar is then removed from the mould and freed from the adhering slag. The slag is separately archived as a reserve sample.

Wet chemistry

We also work with the method to refine your precious metal valuable materials without a melting process: wet chemically. That particularly makes sense if your jewellery still contains precious stones, which you would like to have returned undamaged. Some alloys, depending on the composition, are best separated via the wet chemical process than the standard melting process. Get in contact with us. We will guarantee to find you the most effective and cost-efficient refining method for your material.

Surface cleaning

Surface impurities are eliminated by means of sand blasting or water jets. This preserves the clean and residue-free surface of your scrap gold bars, making it possible to take a sample in the analytics at a later stage. This work step is necessary to prevent that impurities or adherents result in falsified results in the docimacy.

Analytics

Here our experienced precious metal testers evaluate your melted bar. An X-ray fluorescence analysis is performed in order to make an initial appraisal of the precious metal content of the material. As a result, the next steps in the docimacy are initiated.

Docimacy

To determine the precious metal contents, your bar is being diagonally drilled in two places to gather shavings. The extracted shavings are accurately weighted and a certain amount of silver is combined to create an A and B sample. Depending on the expected gold content, and in consideration of the by-elements, a corresponding amount of lead is also added. Now everything is being heated up in a so-called "Magnesite Cupel"; a special kind of crucible. While the ignoble metals contained in the drill sample, as well as the lead, are being consumed by the "Magnesite Cupel", the other by-elements evaporate as oxide. The fine metal content increases with the retention period in the furnace, and at the same time the ignoble metals decrease until they are entirely separated from the pure precious metal, which is then left in the shape of a grain (ball). A subsequent nitric acid treatment separates the other precious metals from the gold. The hereby extracted fine gold of the A and B samples is now used to accurately analyze the gold content of your refining bar. Afterwards the other precious metals are precisely determined by using a spectral analysis (ICP measure). Now we have a full assay report with the final results on which the invoice is based upon.

Invoicing and Precious metals account

The booking to your free-of-charge weight account is made based on this. You then receive a so-called metal account receivable from Heimerle + Meule GmbH. Choose for yourself: The payment of your metal account balance can be made in the form of euro transfers, bars, granules or semi-finished products. We obtain premium prices for your precious metals at all times thanks to our long-standing connections with the most important trading centres worldwide. Or would you prefer a transfer of your precious metals on another metal account? Simply get in touch with us. Our experienced precious metal trading - your transparent, reliable and fair trading partner for your precious metals.