There are many precious metals refineries throughout the world, some local
to their domestic markets, and some international, even global in scale.
Many, but by no means all, of these refineries are on the Good Delivery Lists
of gold and/or silver. These lists are maintained by the London Bullion
Market Association (LBMA) and they identify accredited refineries of large
(wholesale) gold and silver bars that continue to meet rigorous proficient
standards of refining and assaying, and that are, at the same time, financial
viable and stable companies. Currently, there are 71 refiners on the LBMA’s
gold Good Delivery List and 81 refiners on its silver Good Delivery List, or
which just over 50 of these refineries are accredited to both the LBMA’s gold
and silver lists.
But within the top echelons of the world’s precious metals refineries, a
number of names stand out due to their sheer scale and pedigree, as well as
their global brand recognition in the production of a wide range of
investment grade gold and silver bullion bars. These names include PAMP,
Argor-Heraeus, Metalor Technologies, Heraeus, Valcambi, Tanaka Kikinzoku
Kogyo, and Rand Refinery.
5000 Tonnes of Gold
Together these seven refinery groups have a combined gold refining
capacity approaching a mammoth 5000 tonnes per year. And that’s not even
taking into account their refining capacity for other precious metals such as
silver and platinum. Valcambi has a gold refining capacity of 1600 tonnes per
annum, Metalor 800 tonnes, Heraeus 400 to 500 tonnes, PAMP over 450 tonnes,
Argor-Heraeus over 400 tonnes, Tanaka 500 tonnes, and Rand Refinery 600
tonnes.
Notably four of these refineries are based in the gold refining powerhouse
of Switzerland, of which three, PAMP, Valcambi and Argor-Heraeus, are
clustered literally within a few kilometres from each other in the golden
triangle of Swiss refineries centred within the very south of the Swiss
canton of Ticino near the Swiss-Italian border. Metalor Technologies is the
exception, as its Swiss headquarters facility is based in Neuchâtel, in the
north-west of Switzerland. Of the non-Swiss refineries, Heraeus, Tanaka and
Rand Refinery, these are headquartered in Germany, Japan and South Africa,
respectively.
International in Scale and Ownership
Although three of the four giant Swiss refineries have historically each
been owned by a Swiss bank, and although groups such as Heraeus and Tanaka
are still privately owned and controlled by founding shareholders, its
important to note that none of these giant refineries are purely local
concerns, so their headquarters locations are to some extent a secondary
concern. From operating facilities, to metal supplier networks, to customer
bases, all of these refineries are now absolutely global in nature.
For example, Metalor operates four precious metals refineries globally, in
Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore and Massachusetts (US). Heraeus runs gold
refining and gold bar production facilities in Hanau (Germany), Hong Kong,
and Newark (US). In addition to its Swiss refinery, PAMP, part of the
Geneva-based MKS PAMP group, runs a joint venture refinery in New Delhi, in
conjunction with MMTC, a large state-owned Indian trading company.
In many cases, the ownership of these refineries is international and
cross-border in nature, and increasingly so over the last few years.
Agor-Heraeus is owned by the Austrian Mint and two German entities
Commerzbank and Hereaus. In 2015, Valcambi was acquired by Indian jewellery
producer Rajesh Exports, with one of the selling shareholders being US-based
gold mining giant Newmont. Indeed, just last month, Tanaka announced the
acquisition of Metalor Technologies, a development which has initiated
an upcoming major Japanese - Swiss precious metals refinery combination.
Metalor was already international in ownership, as its controlling
shareholders are French and Belgian private equity companies. While Rand
Refinery of South Africa is exclusively owned by five of the largest
South African gold mining companies, some of these owners, such as Anglogold
Ashanti and Goldfields, are vast international concerns. Rand Refinery has
also increasingly had to cast its new wider for sourcing gold to process in
its refinery as South African gold mining output has declined. Rand Refinery
now refines over 75% of the gold mined on the African continent (excluding
South Africa), and is also increasingly tapping into gold mining output from
the US and Asia.
The World's Refinery Referees
Another indicator of the esteem within which these select refineries are
held is their membership of the exclusively small panels of good delivery
list referees which have been appointed to run the LBMA’s good delivery
lists, and similar good delivery lists maintained by the London Platinum and
Palladium Market (LPPM) for platinum and palladium bars.
The LBMA’s good delivery referee panel is a five refinery member panel
made up of Argor-Heraeus, Metalor Technologies, PAMP, Rand Refinery and
Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo. The LPPM’s referee panel also comprises five refiner
members, namely Metalor Technologies, PAMP, Valcambi, Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo and
platinum specialist Johnson Matthey. So not only are these refineries
listed on these LBMA and LPPM good delivery lists, they actually help run the
entire set of good delivery standards and processes. With the upcoming
acquisition of Metalor by Tanaka, these LBMA and LPPM referee lists may need
some adjustment, since Tanaka and Metalor are members of both referee panels.
Overwhelmingly, the gold and silver bars of these refiners are all also
accepted as good delivery for the COMEX gold 100 oz and gold kilo futures
contracts, the gold contracts of the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM),
the Dubai Good Delivery gold list maintained by the Dubai Multi
Commodities Centre (DMCC), and the good delivery standards of the Shanghai
Gold Exchange.
Investment bullion bars
Although all of these precious metals refineries, to various extents,
supply semi-fabricated precious metals, alloys and industrial precious metals
suppliers to a diverse set of industrial and jewellery sector clients, it is
perhaps the investment grade bullion products of these giant refiners that
they are best known to a global audience.
PAMP fabricates a vast range of cast and minted gold and silver bars which
are extremely popular across Asia and the Middle East, in fact, the premier
brand in those regions. Valcambi manufactures a wide range of gold, silver
and platinum / palladium investment bars, as well as precious metal coins and
medals, and has become well-known as the international supplier of Combibars.
Heraeus, Metalor and Argor-Heraeus produce a wide selection of gold and
silver bars ranging from large wholesale (good delivery) bars through to
smaller cast and minted gold and silver bars. Tanaka’s gold bars dominate the
Japanese market and notably, Tanaka is also the sole distributor in Japan of
gold and silver bullion Maple Leafs coins from the Royal Canadian Mint and
gold and platinum Philharmonic coins from the Austrian Mint. Tanaka's
acquisition of Metalor will be interesting in terms of how the combined group
markets and distributes its investment bullion products going forward.
It's also not widely appreciated that Rand Refinery has refined over
50,000 tonnes of gold since it first opened in 1921, which is a staggering
nearly one-third of all the gold ever mined. Rand Refinery large gold bars are
held widely by central banks across the world. Rand Refinery’s flagship gold
bullion Krugerrand coin is also held very widely, with over 60 million
Krugerrands minted since 1967.
This article has not touched on the Perth Mint, Royal Canadian Mint or Royal
Mint, which its important to remember, each operates its own precious metals
refinery facilities in addition to being a sovereign national mint.
In summary, the seven refineries featured above are truly giants of the
industry, and their longevity and customer trust attest to the authenticity
and quality of their investment bullion products.
To learn more about the world's top precious metals refineries featured in
this article, please see the full refinery profiles which have now been
published on BullionStar's Gold University pages:
Heraeus: https://www.bullionstar.com/gold-university/heraeus-refinery
PAMP: https://www.bullionstar.com/gold-university/pamp-refinery
Valcambi: https://www.bullionstar.com/gold-university/v...lcambi-refinery
Metalor: target="_blank" https://www.bullionstar.com/gold-universit...etalor-refinery
Argor-Herae target="_blank"us: https://www.bullionstar.com/gold-univer...eraeus-refinery
Tanaka Kikinzoku target="_blank"Kogyo: https://www.bullionstar.com/gold-uni...tanaka-refinery
Rand target="_blank"Refinery: https://www.bullionstar.com/gold-...y/rand-refinery
In addition, the refining activities of the Royal Mint, Royal Canadian
Mint and Perth Mint can be consulted in their respective profiles, also
on BullionStar's Gold University pages:
Roya target="_blank"l Mint: https://www.bullionstar.com/go.../the-royal-mint
P target="_blank"erth Mint: https://www.bullionstar.com...sity/perth-mint
Royal C target="_blank"anadian Mint: https://www.bullionstar....l-canadian-mint
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