Search
Search the whole magazine.
Full-text search across every article — headlines, decks, body copy, pull quotes, captions and FAQs — plus our editorial and legal policies.
7 results for “All-in sustaining cost (AISC)” in Industry
Industry · 7 August 2026
After the Cyanide
…ecause it is the only reagent that dissolves gold selectively at industrial scale and low cost; the risk lies in handling and storage, not in the chemistry being exotic. · Free cyanide degrades in sunlit water over weeks; the durable hazards at a closed mine are usually metals an…
Tomas Herrera · 16 min read
Industry · 7 August 2026
How Fake Gold Is Detected
…d against it. · Underkarated jewellery, not exotic tungsten-cored bars, is the fraud that costs the industry the most money overall, because it is quiet, distributed across thousands of small items, and invisible without an assay. · Does a magnet test prove gold is real? It dispr…
Tomas Herrera · 16 min read
Industry · 2 July 2026
Nine Nines: Inside a Modern Gold Refinery
…e or six nines requires additional electrolytic passes or zone refining at sharply rising cost, and the market for that grade is narrow — chiefly semiconductor bonding wire and scientific reference standards. · Is recycled gold treated any differently from newly mined gold once r…
Tomas Herrera · 19 min read
Industry · 4 August 2026
The Gold Inside Your Phone
…ications are the least price-sensitive gold demand anywhere, protected by requalification costs far larger than any metal saving. · How much gold is in a smartphone? Roughly 0.2 to 0.35 grams, depending on the model and generation, spread across connector plating, printed-circuit…
Tomas Herrera · 18 min read
Industry · 28 July 2026
Urban Mining: The Richest Gold Ore on Earth Is in Your Old Phone
…mal sector that is faster and cheaper precisely because it externalises the environmental cost. · How much gold is in a mobile phone? On the order of a few tens of milligrams — worth a small amount individually. The economics only work in bulk: it takes thousands of handsets to a…
Tomas Herrera · 16 min read
Industry · 20 August 2026
The Refiner's Ledger
…compliance with accreditation standards as an existential priority rather than a routine cost of doing business. · A bar of doré arriving at a Swiss refinery looks, to the untrained eye, like nothing worth the armed escort that typically accompanies it. It is a rough, unglamorou…
Tomas Herrera · 17 min read
Industry · 6 August 2026
The Scrap Trade
…d each margin is defensible on its own terms — the counter carries fraud risk and holding cost, the consolidator carries transport and insurance, the refiner carries process losses. Stacked, they explain most of the gap between spot and what a seller is offered. · Do the arithmet…
Ingrid Sørensen · 16 min read
