Assaying of gold jewelry – Choice of technique, Dr. Christopher Corti, World Gold Council, London, England.
The article by Dr. Corti was adapted from a paper that was presented at the Santa Fe Symposium in 2001. The use of fire assay to determine the fineness of gold dates back to 1360 BC. The ancient technique of fire assay is compared to modern instrumentation techniques, specifically ICP Spectrometry and X-Ray Fluorescence. Fire assay remains the most superior and accurate technique for measuring gold content and it continues to be the benchmark to which all other techniques are compared.
