Protecting Oversize for Our Clients
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
Since our founding in 1972, Advanced Chemical Company has steadily built an outstanding reputation as a leader in the refining of precious metals for a wide variety of industries. The value of precious metals is increasing by leaps and bounds. Our processes include capturing what other refineries may overlook or destroy.
In our burn room, we recapture gold and other precious metals. After a mix is ball milled it will go into a sifter that works similar to a colander for pasta - the water flows out of the bottom and what’s left in the colander is the pasta. After a mix is sifted, what’s left up on top is basically metal that could not be pulverized, which is called oversize. Most oversize contains magnetic material - it could be stainless steel material that was part of the lot that was incinerated that becomes magnetic during the processing. We take the magnetic material out, leaving the precious metal available for melting.
We can either melt the oversize immediately or store it to melt with another lot. Advance Chemical clients generally know what they’re doing and handle their oversize correctly. Some know that most of the value may be in their oversize others may know there is only a trace amount of value. If they want to process it, we’ll process it. However, we take the time to look at the variables involved in processing their oversize to ensure that the processing cost doesn’t outweigh any potential return. If the cost is too high, the customer can store the oversize with us until they have a larger batch to make a more cost-effective melt.
Security for the storage of each oversize batch is essential. The oversize is stored in a sealed container with the client name and lot number. Records signify, for example, a specific oversize is seal number 751. When the owner returns, they can check that seal number and they know it has not been opened. Each client can even provide us their own seal to further ensure the protection of their property.
Under no circumstances is a seal broken unless authorized by the customer. Rarely is the seal broken for any other reason than to process the oversize, although the customer may occasionally need to examine the contents for some reason. We never break a seal without the company’s permission.
Advance Chemical is not just the leader in the precious metals refining industry - we’re also the experts. Our ultimate goal is to satisfy each customer and exceed all expectations by continually improving upon our performance. Processing and storing oversize to retain the best value is only a small part of how we operate to assist our clients in protecting their bottom line.