Professional scrap gold refining Toronto Services
Karat testing you can watch, sorting before anything reaches a scale, and a worksheet that shows how every line of the arithmetic was reached.
Your Trusted Scrap Gold Refining Toronto Partner
The stamp inside a ring is a claim, not a measurement. Estate jewelry and imported work carry marks that were never held to Canadian conventions, and plated pieces are stamped as confidently as solid ones. A buyer who weighs your bag without testing it is guessing, and the guess will not be generous.
Our scrap gold refining Toronto counter tests before it weighs and sorts before it quotes. Streak tests on the touchstone, cross-checked against an analyser reading, then each karat group weighed separately so the good material never gets averaged down by the poor material sitting next to it in the same bag.
$47M+
Precious Metals Recovered for Clients
How Karat Scrap Gets Tested and Sorted
Two testing methods that fail in opposite directions, and a sorting step that refuses to blend your weights
Acid Needle Testing at the Counter
The oldest karat test still in daily use, and the fastest way to separate solid gold from things that merely look like it while you watch.
- ✓ A streak is rubbed onto a basalt touchstone, then graded acids are applied one strength at a time
- ✓ The streak that survives 14K acid but dissolves under 18K acid tells you where the piece actually sits
- ✓ Destructive only to a trace of metal, which is why it never runs on anything you might keep intact
XRF Confirmation Without a Mark
A handheld analyser reads the alloy composition through the surface, leaving no streak, no scratch, and no acid on the piece.
- ✓ Reads the surface layer, which is exactly why plated work shows a high number that the acid test then contradicts
- ✓ Used alongside the touchstone rather than instead of it, since the two methods fail in different directions
- ✓ Anything unusual, such as a reading that no standard karat alloy would produce, gets set aside for a proper assay
Sorting Before Anything Is Weighed
Mixed karat lots are separated into karat groups first, because a single blended weight would quietly average your 18K down toward your 10K.
- ✓ Each karat group is weighed on its own and appears as its own line on your worksheet
- ✓ Solder joints and white metal clasps are removed, since they are not the karat stamped on the piece
- ✓ You watch the sorting happen and can question any piece before its group is finalised
Plated and Filled Work Identified
Gold-filled and heavily plated pieces look identical to solid gold in a tangled pile, and they carry a fraction of the content.
- ✓ Worn edges and clasp interiors are checked first, since plating wears through at contact points
- ✓ Marks such as GF, GP, and RGP are pulled out and shown to you rather than silently discarded
- ✓ Filled items are not worthless and are quoted separately, at what their actual content supports
The Settlement Worksheet
One page showing how the arithmetic runs, built so you can follow every step from sorted weights to the figure you are paid.
- ✓ Weight per karat group, then the fine gold content each group represents, then the total
- ✓ The market reference used and the exact time it was taken, since gold moves during the day
- ✓ The fee applied against recovered content rather than against your gross weight, shown as its own line
Minimum Lots Explained Upfront
Small quantities carry fixed handling costs that do not shrink with the lot, so there is a floor below which processing makes no sense.
- ✓ Below the floor, buying your scrap outright usually returns more than refining it would
- ✓ Staff say which route applies before you commit, not after the material has been taken in
- ✓ Several small lots accumulated over months can be held and run together to clear the threshold
Four Steps from Tangled Bag to Worksheet
Testing comes before weighing, and weighing comes before any number is discussed
Untangle and Look
Chains come apart, clasps get opened, and stamps are read where they exist. Worn edges and clasp interiors are examined first, because plating always wears through at contact points before it wears through anywhere else.
Anything marked GF, GP, or RGP is set aside at this stage. Stones are noted for removal rather than destruction. Nothing has touched a scale yet, deliberately.
Streak and Read
A trace of metal is rubbed onto the touchstone and graded acids are applied weakest first. The strength at which the streak finally dissolves is where the piece truly sits, whatever the stamp claims.
An analyser reading is taken alongside it. Where the two disagree, that piece is pulled for closer work rather than quietly pushed into whichever group is convenient.
Group and Weigh
Tested pieces go into karat groups, and each group meets the scale on its own. One blended weight would average your best material down toward your worst, which is exactly what sorting prevents.
You watch this happen and may question any individual piece before its group is closed. Solder joints and white metal components come out here, since neither is the karat stamped on the piece.
Work Through the Sheet
One page: weight per karat group, the fine content each group represents, the sum of those contents, the market reference with the time it was taken, and the fee on its own line.
Nothing is folded into anything else. Read it at the counter, ask about any line, and take payment by transfer or cheque once you are satisfied it adds up.
Scrap Gold Refining Toronto Pricing
Transparent metal recycling Toronto fees based on volume
Standard Volume Refining
For households clearing a jewelry box and for benches producing scrap occasionally rather than weekly.
- ✓ Karat sorting carried out where you can watch it
- ✓ Acid streak and analyser readings cross-checked
- ✓ Plated and filled pieces separated and shown to you
- ✓ Weight recorded per karat group, never blended
- ✓ Worksheet showing content, reference, and fee
- ✓ Told before intake if outright purchase suits you better
High-Volume Refining
For working jewellers and trade clients sending karat scrap on a regular cycle.
- ✓ Everything in Standard, plus:
- ✓ Small lots held and accumulated to clear the floor
- ✓ One named contact across every delivery
- ✓ Karat group history kept between lots
- ✓ Scheduled slots rather than counter queuing
- ✓ Collection arranged from your workshop
- ✓ Statements suitable for your bookkeeper
Working the Arithmetic Yourself
The step people miss is that a gram of 14K and a gram of 18K are not the same quantity of gold. Karat describes the proportion of pure gold in the alloy, so each sorted group has to be converted to fine content before any of it can be added together. Skip that conversion and the total is meaningless.
The sequence on your sheet follows that logic exactly. Weight per group, fine content per group, then a single summed content figure. Only at that point does a market reference enter, applied once to the total rather than separately to each line where rounding could quietly accumulate.
According to the World Gold Council, jewelry accounts for a substantial share of annual gold demand worldwide, which is why karat scrap is such a common feedstock. Ask any buyer to show you their conversion step. A buyer who cannot produce it on request is not doing it.
Not Sure What Is Solid and What Is Plated?
Bring the whole bag exactly as it is. Untangling, testing, and separating the filled pieces from the solid ones is our job, not yours.
Nothing gets weighed until it has been tested, and you watch the sorting happen.
Scrap Gold Refining Toronto Results
Six karat lots that arrived tangled, unmarked, or mis-stamped, and how each one sorted out
Tangled Chain Lot
Two decades of snapped chains, sorted into three karat groups before any of it reached a scale
Cabbagetown, Toronto
Single Earrings and Findings
A drawer of unmatched studs, jump rings, and clasps, with the white metal backs separated out first
Willowdale, North York
Costume Box Sorted Out
Mostly gold-filled once the clasps were checked, with the four solid pieces returned to the owner intact
Port Credit, Mississauga
Estate Jewelry, Mixed Karats
European marks that did not map to Canadian karat conventions, resolved by streak testing piece by piece
Birch Cliff, Scarborough
Six Small Lots Combined
A bench jeweller accumulated across half a year, held and run together once the weight cleared the floor
The Kingsway, Etobicoke
Stamp Versus Streak
Three pieces marked 18K that tested nearer 14K, with the discrepancy shown to the owner before sorting closed
Maple, Vaughan
What Our Gold Scrap Buyers Clients Say
Three clients on mis-stamped rings, filled pieces mistaken for solid, and lots too small to process
Everything in my mother's jewelry box went in one bag and I assumed it would come back as one number. Instead the counter separated it into karat groups in front of me, and pulled out four pieces that were filled rather than solid. Two other places had quoted me a single blended figure without ever mentioning the difference. Watching the sorting is what convinced me the scrap gold refining Toronto arithmetic was honest.
Three of my late father's rings were stamped 18K and tested closer to 14K on the touchstone. Rather than quietly grouping them low, staff showed me the streaks side by side and explained that old European marks do not always match Canadian conventions. I would never have known to ask. That five minutes of teaching was worth more to me than the difference on the settlement.
My bench produces small amounts and I was told elsewhere it was not worth processing, which felt like a brush-off. Here they explained the fixed cost floor, offered to buy the scrap outright instead, and then suggested holding my lots until six months of accumulation cleared the threshold. I took the second option. Nobody had ever laid out the economics of a minimum lot to me before.
Your Gold Refining Services Questions Answered
Common questions about scrap gold refining Toronto, fire assay testing, and metal recycling Toronto
Start Your Scrap Gold Refining Toronto Today
Broken chains, single earrings, snapped clasps, and anything you were told was not worth bothering with. Bring it untangled or tangled, it makes no difference.
If your lot sits under the processing floor, staff will say so and offer to buy it outright instead.
Send Your Karat Marks and We Will Tell You What to Expect
List the stamps you can read and roughly how much there is. Staff explain how sorting will run, whether your lot clears the processing floor, and which pieces are likely to be filled rather than solid.
- Karat groups weighed separately, never blended into one figure
- Streak test and analyser reading cross-checked on every piece
- Plated and filled items shown to you, not silently discarded
- Stones removed and returned rather than destroyed
- Told before intake if outright purchase beats refining
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Scrap Gold Refining Areas We Service
Karat scrap arriving from households and workshops right across the region
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