Gold has been valued and treasured by humans for thousands of years. It is one of the most versatile and sought-after metals on Earth. Gold was responsible for the invention of money. Most of the first gold ore that was mined by mankind has been used and reused over and over again. Very little of the first gold ore that was mined has ever been lost. As gold items broke or became degraded over time, they were melted down, mixed with newly mined gold, refined and reused again. This refining and recycling process gave rise to scrap gold buyers.
Today, scrap gold buyers purchase vast amounts of gold objects, such as gold wire, old gold jewelry, gold from dental restorations, gold nuggets and flakes, and gold coins. These objects are sorted by karat type, refined and then sold.
Karat Gold Jewelry - All gold jewelry is marked with a karat stamp that measures the purity of gold within the stamped object. This karat stamp indicates the percentage of gold that is contained within the piece. The remaining percentage in the gold jewelry is the amount of other alloys contained within that piece. The most common karat gold stampings are as follows:
- 8 karat gold which is 33.33% pure gold
- 10 karat gold which is 41.66% pure gold
- 14 karat gold which is 58.3% pure gold
- 18 karat gold which is 75% pure gold
- 22 karat gold which is 91.66% pure gold
- 24 karat gold which is 99.95% pure gold
The Process of Refining Karat Gold - Gold is alloyed with other metals like copper, silver, or nickel. This is done to reduce the cost of the gold, increase its durability and give it more color options. In order to reuse scrap gold, it is refined by melting it down and chemically dissolving the other metals and impurities. After the gold is refined, it can be sold to jewelry manufacturers and re-alloyed with other metals again. It is then formed into gold casting grains, sheets, wires, tubes, and other shapes.
The Role of the Scrap Gold Buyer - After establishing the purity of the karat gold jewelry, the scrap gold buyer then weighs the gold objects in grams, pennyweights, and troy ounces. The scrap gold buyer then researches the current price of gold on the commodities market so that a monetary value can be established for each piece. With this information, the scrap gold buyer then sells the gold objects to reputable gold dealers. Ultimately, the majority of gold objects will be taken to a refinery, melted down, recycled and reformed and the whole process begins again.
For as long as gold has been valued and collected, it has been recycled and refined. The scrap gold buyer (such as Mid-States Recycling & Refining) has played an integral part in this recycling and refining process. Without the scrap gold buyer, there would be no recycled or refined gold. Without the scrap gold buyer, there would be no money.
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