Assaying Precious Metals

Preparing material for assay is a key part of the refining process and an essential measurement when selecting one refiner over another. Providing customers with full-service precious metals refining and assaying, Windfield Alloy Inc. uses fire assay and atomic absorption spectrometry.

Fire Assay

Fire assay is the standard for valuing gold and silver at major mining companies and refineries. The metal is melted down then the precious metal sample is chemically separated from the other metals. The process is different for each precious metal, using a variety of chemicals during the separation process.

Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

Atomic Absorption Spectrometry is designed to determine the amount of an object element in a sample, utilizing the phenomenon that the atoms in the ground state absorb the light of characteristic wavelength passing through an atomic vapor layer of the element.