Why these crucial skills matter when choosing a refinery

In a competitive gold producer landscape, it’s vital that aspects of risk be minimised otherwise you could find your mining project losing money, losing trust from stakeholders and losing face when it comes to future projects.

So, what important skills and capabilities should you look for when choosing a refinery to partner with?

Turnaround time

How quickly a refinery can assay precious metals can seriously impact on cash flow for producers. Ensuring you partner with a refinery who guarantees a short timeframe can make all the difference to your business. We’d recommend a refinery who can offer a technically advanced precious metals assay laboratory, provide up to 48-hour turnaround time and accuracy of within 0.001% for gold analysis.

Technical knowledge

Crucial when it comes to accuracy. Choose a refiner who embraces technology and innovation and will always strive for future success, not just for themselves but their clients too.

Trust, accountability and reliability

You should be able to trust your refiner in all aspects of the refining process – from who they choose to do business with from an ethical stand point to how they pursue technical advancements to ensure their assaying process is as accurate as it should be. It also goes without saying that as a refiner, who you partner with needs integrity to always be accountable in every aspect of the workflow, from mine to market.

Sustainability and ethical sourcing

Sustainability is more critical than ever. A refinery with a strong sustainability focus helps to safeguard people and the environment. It shows the humility of a company and how they treat and respect workers as well as those they partner with.

Safety

It’s something we all take for granted, that going to work provides a safe place to undertake tasks. But the reality is that there are many workplaces that don’t take the wellbeing of their employees as seriously as they should – and that’s mental as well as physical health.

These small things really can make or break your mining project should they not be taken seriously. It’s important to remember that your chosen refinery should tick all of these boxes to ensure the success and care of your project as it moves forwards.

“It is not just one thing that differentiates a refinery from the competition but a combination of many of the small things that we do that can add value and strengthen the relationship with our customer base,” says Cameron Alexander, The Perth Mint’s General Manager of Commercial Development.

A refinery that ticks all the boxes?

At The Perth Mint we’ve been a partner to the Australasian mining industry for more than 120 years, offering one of the most technically advanced and best equipped precious metals assay laboratories in the southern hemisphere. The world’s leading gold and silver producers trust us to deliver quality refining at a competitive and sustainable price and we take pride in returning maximum metal to producers, like you, for every ounce refined.

As the oldest mint in Australia and at the forefront of gold and silver refining for more than 100 years, we feel responsible for the sustainable management and efficient use of our country’s natural resources. We’re committed to playing our part towards reducing carbon emissions by at least 80% by 2030 and are making changes in how we go about our day-to-day business, including introducing new practices and measures that make us even less carbon dependent.

We’re also committed to the health and safety of all our stakeholders and it’s at the heart of our activities. Employee wellbeing is embedded in our culture, from the top down. And it’s not just our people we care about, we’re passionate about the environment and we’re motivated to do more than just meet external compliance standards – this goes for our ethical sourcing too.

If you would like to know more about partnering with The Perth Mint, find out more here.