Valcambi Suisse is the world’s largest precious metals refinery with annual production capacity of 2,000 tonnes of precious metals. The Valcambi refinery is located in Balerna.
The Valcambi Suisse refinery provides a range of services from assaying to refining, to precious metals fabrication through to storage. According to its Sustainability Report published in 2013, Valcambi has an annual gold refining capacity of 1600 tonnes and a total annual precious metals refining capacity of 2000 tonnes. The Valcambi was the first refinery in the world to produce a minted gold bar, and its current refinery facility produces gold bars by a 100% automated robotic process.
The Valcambi SUISSE refinery stamp is officially described by the LBMA as “a rectangle enclosing CHI in a circle and ESSAYEUR FONDEUR. Brand mark is a diamond comprising four scalene triangles.”
The refinery also produces highly detailed coins and medals and specialises in supply precious metal alloys in semi finished form to the Swiss luxury watch and jewellery sector.
Argor-Heraeus is one of Switzerland’s and the world’s largest precious metals refineries. The Argor-Heraeus refinery is located in Mendrisio. The Argor-Heraeus refinery, which has an annual gold refining capacity of approximately 350 – 400 tonnes. The Argor-Heraeus refinery processes and refines gold, silver, platinum and palladium from mining sources, scrap / recyclable sources and also transforms good delivery bars into smaller bars. The refinery refines gold up to 99.99% and 99.999% purities, silver up to 99.9%, and platinum and palladium 99.95%. Argor-Heraeus’ customer base from over 50 countries, including mining companies, trading houses, bullion banks central and commercial banks, mints, jewellery and watch companies and industrial consumers.
The refinery’s products include a range of investment grade precious metals bars for the wholesale and retail markets, precious metals coins, and also finished and semi-finished alloys and high precision products for the electronics, chemical, watch and jewellery industries. Argor-Heraeus’ also runs a precious metals trading desk that executes orders and provides account management and financing services for its customer base.
Argor-Heraeus is one of only five refinery members of the London Bullion Market Associations (LBMA) good delivery referee panel, which assists the LBMA is maintaining quality standards of refinery members worldwide.
Metalor is one of the oldest and largest precious metals refining groups in the world and its gold and silver investment grade bars are highly regarded in both the wholesale and retail segments of the global bullion market. Until the late 1990s, Metalor was owned by Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC). Metalor is unique in that it operates four precious metals refineries worldwide, in Switzerland, the US, Hong Kong and Singapore. In 2016, Japanese precious metals group Tanaka announced that it planned to acquire the entire Metalor group and integrate Metalor into Tanaka’s precious metals operations.
Metalor Technologies operates three divisions, namely Refining, Electrotechnics, and Advanced Coatings. The Electrotechnics division fabricates silver and other alloys into electrical conductivity contacts used in a wide range of applications. Its facilities are based in Europe, Asia and North America.
The Advanced Coatings division provides electroplating solutions and equipment for alloys used in the luxury watch and jewellery sector, as well as fabricating coatings for semi-conductors. This division also produces precious metals powders and flakes for use in photovoltaic applications, touch screens and is involved in nanotechnology applications. The facilities of the Advanced Coating division are located in Switzerland, France, the US, China and Japan.
The Refining division refines precious metals from mining output and industrial scrap, and also recasts investment grade precious metals bars (for example from 400 oz bars into 1 kilo bars).
PAMP’s refinery in Switzerland is located at in Castel San Pietro, in the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland. The refinery has an annual refining capacity of over 450 tonnes of gold, and an annual silver refining capacity of over 600 tonnes. PAMP also refines platinum and palladium, and has a combined platinum group metals refining capacity of 30 tonnes per year.
The refinery can extract precious metals from any metal bearing material such as mining doré or recycling scrap, and also refine and recast existing investment bars such as good delivery bars into smaller bars. PAMP also provides an assaying service to clients. Products produced by the refinery range from investment cast and minted bars, bullion coins, coin blanks, and commemorative coins, alloys in forms such as rods and wire and for use in the jewellery industry, gold and silver grain, platinum and palladium sponge.
PAMP SA one of the 5 refiners worldwide that have been appointed as Good Delivery referees in the London Bullion Market Association’s good delivery referee panel. These referees maintain the LBMA’s Good Delivery System by assessing refining applicants, providing technical advice, and assaying metal samples from other refineries.
The Perth Mint’s refinery is one of the best known precious metals refineries in the world and one of the largest precious metals refineries outside Switzerland. It has a gold refining capacity of over 600 tonnes per annum. The refinery is located at Horrie Miller Drive,Western Australia. This facility refines gold and silver sourced from mining operations in Australia and from other countries around Asia and Oceania. It also refines precious metals from industrial scrap and jewellery sources. The refinery is accredited to the London Bullion Market Association’s (LBMA) Good Delivery List for gold and silver, meaning that the Perth Mint’s 400oz gold bars and 1000 oz silver bars are on the LBMA’s good delivery list. The refinery’s logo, which contains a swan emblem is based on the fact that the Swan River runs through the city of Perth.
The Perth Mint claims to refine nearly all (99%) of the gold doré produced by Australian gold mining operations. Gold for refining is also sourced from mining operations in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, the Philippines, and Fiji.
Heraeus is a global precious metals and technology group, headquartered in Hanau, Germany, with operations in multiple countries around the world. One of the Heraeus group’s core activities is the processing and trading of industrial precious metals including gold and silver. With a significant refining capacity for precious metals including a gold refining capacity in the range of 400 – 500 tonnes per annum, Heraeus produces a wide range of precious metals bars for the investment gold and silver market which are highly regarded worldwide. The Heraeus precious metals trading desks, of which there are four located around the world, are a very significant contributor to the group’s overall annual revenues. Heraeus is therefore an integral part of the German gold market.
The physical precious metals product range offered by Heraeus[Heraeus physical precious metals is extensive. In gold and silver, Heraeus produces large Good Delivery Bars for the wholesale market, smaller investment bars for the investment sector, and gold and silver grain for industry and the jewellery sector. In platinum and palladium, Heraeus produces good delivery bars, investment bars, and sponge (used in industry). In other platinum group metals, namely rhodium, ruthenium, and iridium, Heraeus produces sponge & powder.
Rand Refinery is probably the most famous gold refinery in the world, given that, since its first opening in 1921, it has refined over 50,000 tonnes of gold, which is nearly 30% of all the gold, that has ever been mined. The refinery is situated at a location in Germiston. The ‘Rand Refinery’ facilities encompass a smelting operation, refinery operation and coin and bar fabricating facilities. The refinery’s most famous product is probably the world-renowned Krugerrand gold bullion coin, of which 60 million coins have been produced since its launch in 1967.
The refinery’s minted bar range has been produced since 2012. Rand Refinery minted gold bars are produced in the following weights: 100 grams, 50 grams, 20 grams, 10 grams, 8 grams, 5 grams, and 2.5 grams. Since 2011, the refinery logo on Rand Refinery bars has featured a circular brand mark representing a “pouring crucible”. The former bar mark features an encircled Springbok head.
Rand Refinery is a full member of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), and its gold bars have been accredited as good delivery for the London gold market since 1921. Notably, Rand Refinery is the only precious metals refinery in Africa to be accredited by the LBMA.
The name C.HAFNER has stood for innovative, trendsetting technologies in the precious metals sector for over 165 years. At C.HAFNER, our strong focus on technology and solutions is based on high-tech recycling of precious metal, digital dental technologies, state-of-the-art machining centres, a wide range of semi-finished products and in-depth knowledge of numerous applications.
Gold bars from C.HAFNER are a safe way of investing in uncertain times and are also a logical complement to a jeweller’s range. Small weights in particular are an attractive alternative to the standard bank note. The elegant finish of the bars with their finely embossed surface also ensures that gold bullion from C.HAFNER will stand out from conventional bullion. Bullion is an excellent investment vehicle with a unique aesthetic appeal.