Precious Metals Analysis

We specialize in the analysis of precious metals in a multitude of materials.  We have three departments with expertise in the various aspects of these evaluations of precious metals;

• the fire assay department performs traditional lead collection for gold and silver determination.  This procedure also collects small amounts of platinum and palladium.  Nickel and copper sulfide fusions are also used for the collection of precious metals.
• the gold and silver department provides analysis of high-grade materials using gravimetric procedures.  This team also analyzes the small amounts of platinum group elements that are collected in fire assay beads.
• the platinum group department analyzes high concentrations of platinum group metals, which involve difficult separations, including distillations of osmium and ruthenium.

We help companies in recover and recycle various precious metals.  The recovery of these precious and rare metals such as gold, platinum, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, and iridium, becomes more important year-after-year, both economically and environmentally.  It is far more efficient to recover and recycle metals that have been used than it is to actually mine the raw materials.  And, due to new environmental laws, some materials cannot simply be tossed into a landfill, i.e., automotive catalysts and electronic scrap.

Our technicians sample and analyze a wide range of catalysts, both new and spent.  Refining and automotive catalysts are analyzed for their precious metal content, loss on ignition, loss on drying, and the identification of rhenium, cerium, nickel, iron, silicon, arsenic and carbon.

Precious metals like palladium and gold, are used in almost all electronic devices for their strong electrical connectivity.  Therefore, these precious metals are found in old computers, televisions, cellular phones, circuit boards, semiconductors, and many other electronic units.

We can analyze small samples to determine its value for refineries, scrap vendors and collectors.  We regularly perform umpire analyses between refiners and suppliers, as well as between refiners and other refiners of precious metals.

Our precious metal services include precious metal testing and inspection, catalyst analysis, gold analysis, platinum analysis, silver analysis, and palladium analysis, and high precision assaying.