Gold is more than something that glistens. Proper precious metals refining protocol can often lead to an increase in your bottom line.
Best practices for retail jewelers, particularly those who have bench jewelers on site, are always important. Over the years, we have encountered many customers losing efficiencies and not maximizing their profits with regards to their precious metals collection and recovery.
No matter how large or small your operation is, we all agree everyone can use a little more added to their bottom line. For the highest return on precious metals many of our customers have found that there are best practices that should be followed for a consistently profitable refining program.
Schedule your free Precious Metals Loss Prevention Audit today.
Here are a few areas to bring to your attention:
- Scrap collection
- Best time to send your scrap
- Shipping practices
- Understanding your return
Scrap Collection
Segregate material by type. Keep free of trash and no value. Eliminating steel, rusty nails and “no value” trash mixed in with your precious metals can help you to more accurately predict your return. In addition, you will have better accountability and be able to potentially identify in house or refinery issues.
When collecting “sweeps”, don’t forget vacuum bags, temporary rugs under benches, rags and wipes. There are trace amounts of precious metals on these items and over time, this can really add up. Buffing machines can hold a good amount of precious metals as well. Wiping the machine down periodically and sending the wipes in with your sweeps may add to your return.
For larger retail jewelers, this could mean a substantial increase in your return.
We once had a jeweler that found $65k in the rug of his facility. The check was certainly nice; but this is not necessaririly a good thing. The customer promptly reviewed the company standard operating procedures for jewelry repair and maintenance and made some changes.
Wipes, rags and temporary rugs ready for refining.
For more tips on maximizing your scrap collection see next week’s blog- subscribe on this page.
