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7 results for “metal detecting finds” in Industry
Industry · 2 July 2026
Nine Nines: Inside a Modern Gold Refinery
…s, aqua regia, an electrolytic cell and a chain of custody that is now as valuable as the metal itself. · Refining is two-stage: fast chlorination to ~99.5%, then electrolysis to 99.99% and above. · Fire assay, a technique older than the periodic table, remains the referee method…
Tomas Herrera · 19 min read
Industry · 7 August 2026
How Fake Gold Is Detected
…ost tens of microns, so a plated or shelled fake reads as pure gold. XRF is excellent for detecting alloy fraud in jewellery and for confirming surface fineness; it is structurally incapable of seeing a core. · What does ultrasonic testing actually measure? The speed of sound thr…
Tomas Herrera · 16 min read
Industry · 4 August 2026
The Gold Inside Your Phone
…ce-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-board surface finish, and…
Tomas Herrera · 18 min read
Industry · 20 August 2026
The Refiner's Ledger
…gold's trustworthiness rests on a small number of institutional stamps rather than on the metal itself. · What is doré and why can't it be sold directly? Doré is a semi-pure alloy of gold and silver, with residual base metals, poured into rough ingots at or near the mine site as…
Tomas Herrera · 17 min read
Industry · 6 August 2026
The Scrap Trade
…a chain of intermediaries that most sellers never see past the first counter. · Recycled metal typically supplies around a quarter to a third of annual gold demand, and its volume responds to price faster than mine output can. · Scrap is priced off spot, adjusted for assayed fin…
Ingrid Sørensen · 16 min read
Industry · 28 July 2026
Urban Mining: The Richest Gold Ore on Earth Is in Your Old Phone
…arily concentrated by mining standards. · The bottleneck is collection and logistics, not metallurgy; the chemistry has been solved for decades. · Informal backyard recovery captures a fraction of the gold while releasing the most toxic residues. · Recycled metal already supplies…
Tomas Herrera · 16 min read
Industry · 7 August 2026
After the Cyanide
…ide degrades in sunlit water over weeks; the durable hazards at a closed mine are usually metals and acidity, not the reagent itself. · Acid mine drainage generates when sulphide minerals meet air and water, and can run for centuries without intervention. · Upstream-raised tailin…
Tomas Herrera · 16 min read
