Precious Metal Testing
Depending on lot size and expected turnaround, sometimes hand testing isn’t the best option. In those cases, Manhattan Gold & Silver will melt your gold and then we offer two methods for testing metal lots and determining their value. Assaying means testing, and at Manhattan Gold & Silver we handle precious metal assaying with the strictest of accuracy standards to ensure that you get a fair valuation for your lot. We offer two forms of precious metal assaying—Machine and Fire Assaying.
Machine-Precious Metal Assaying
- Done through x-ray analysis with one of our two onsite x-ray machines.
- Quicker than fire assaying procedures, machine assaying via x-ray takes only minutes.
- The metal is melted into a bar, a sample is drilled and x-rayed to determine purity.
- It is very accurate. While not as accurate as a fire assay, the machine assay is generally accurate to 5 parts per thousand.
- Provided free of charge.
Fire-Precious Metal Assaying
- The standard for valuing gold and silver at major mining companies and refineries.
- Metal is melted down then the precious metal sample is chemically separated from the other metals.
- The process is different for each precious metal, using a variety of chemicals during the separation process.
- Takes about one day to determine purity of the remaining precious metal left after the chemical reaction.
- Highest accuracy. Five times more accurate than a machine assay, between 1 part per thousand and 1 part per 10,000.
- Manhattan Gold & Silver charges $25 per gold fire assay.
While gold, silver, platinum, and palladium metals come from different industries and may be used for different applications, we have expertise with them all.