Waffles
Hazard to Others
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Registered: 1-10-2006
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Platinum group refining...companies?
Does anyone have any experience with refiner companies? I have this impression that they are incredibly adept at cheating people out of their
materials and moneys.
I've done a lot of work with individuals, but the people I have worked with in the past are weary of making up these horrible acid cocktails to
dissolve my platinum stuffs.
Any recommendations/warnings/advice?
\"…\'tis man\'s perdition to be safe, when for the truth he ought to die.\"
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UnintentionalChaos
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I know some people who do jewelry work and recycle scraps of silver and such. They basically sell it back to the company for money. The best any
company will give them is about 70% of market value in store credit, much less if you want actual money. I wouldn't expect much better service from
refining companies.
Department of Redundancy Department - Now with paperwork!
'In organic synthesis, we call decomposition products "crap", however this is not a IUPAC approved nomenclature.' -Nicodem
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Xenoid
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I have sold Pt scrap and a little Au to Midwest Refineries in Michigan.
http://www.midwestrefineries.com/index.htm
They have a great website, worth a look at in itself.
They claim to be an old family run business. I dealt with them all the way from New Zealand. They sent my refunds as company cheques and I never had
any problems with them. Send them an email and discuss your situation, they will accept any quantities.
Regards, Xenoid
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S.C. Wack
bibliomaster
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They are a very well-known and heavily used company within the precious metals community in the USA, though their core business is ~90% Ag and 14K Au.
They can be trusted as far as any in their business.
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Fleaker
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I'm not quite weary just yet :-)!
But most often, you won't get even close to full spot price, for most PGMs it seems ~80% of spot is what one would get, gold and silver usually around
88-94% of spot depending on who you know.
Neither flask nor beaker.
"Kid, you don't even know just what you don't know. "
--The Dark Lord Sauron
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Xenoid
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Well I guess spot price is for precious metal dealers. You could only ever hope to get spot price if you had a minted bar with the purity stamped on
it. Or a Krugerrand or Eagle or some such coin, and you were negotiating with a dealer.
If you are dealing with a refinery they will always assay (analyse) the material first, they probably have to hedge their precious metal dealing etc.
and make a profit. So even if you gave them a bar of "pure" platinum you would be unlikely to get more than 90% of spot price.
From memory I think I was getting 90% from Midwest, but it was 90% of a price that was about $50 less that spot (when Pt was about $1000/oz). They did
include the assay results however, which seemed reasonable from my knowledge of the material.
Edit: I found an old settlement return, Midwest payed 89% on Pt and 94% on Au and that included the assay, but the market price was always somewhat
less then spot, as noted above.
Regards, Xenoid
[Edited on 29-10-2007 by Xenoid]
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Fleaker
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Xenoid--Don't even count on that either. I've sold a lot of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion coins and ingots from Engelhard, Credit
Swiss, JM, and Heraeus to several local dealers, and never got spot, it's always a few percent of the metal's spot price away from full spot. Then
they turn around and retail it for a few percent over spot price. That's how they do it. But when I'm in a rush and don't feel like going through the
bank I normally do, I'm willing to lose a couple hundred dollars in the exchange rather than wait for the assay to clear.
94% is about right--I have a hookup for 95 for gold, 92 for Pt, and 90 for Pd, and 96 for silver.
Neither flask nor beaker.
"Kid, you don't even know just what you don't know. "
--The Dark Lord Sauron
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Panache
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Mood: Instead of being my deliverance, she had a resemblance to a Kat named Frankenstein
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ha Xenold i used a refiner in NZ when i cashed in some pt crucibles i bought at action, you are in NZ and sent to the US so that means anyone in the
US should send to Aus.
but seriously using a dealer to use a refiner is the best bet if you are wary of being skimmed from, just make sure the dealer provides you with
documentation from the refiner, that way transparency is maintained. Any conspiracy to defraud you wouldn't be worth it for them, unless of course you
have heaps of metal.
A jeweller friend will often split his cache (after ingotting) and send it to two different refiners because he is paranoid, however he does admit
that there hasn't ever been much of a discrepency.
i had some 75g of Pt when refined produced ~73g Pt, i then sold that to the dealer who ha organised the refining without viewing it for 95% spot
price, if i remember correctly i got around $AUS60/g 18months back. Not bad given the 8boxes of lab shit i found the crucibles in i bought for $AUS70.
If i remember correctly my wife promtly spent $400 of it at the hairdresser. The refining cost was $140.00 this may be more expensive if your Pt isn't
pure as mine obviously was.
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