BULLION BARS AND COINS
The history of refining at The Perth Mint is probably less well known as our many coining achievements. An acquaintance with the strength of our expertise in this field may be significant to investors currently looking to buy gold and silver bullion.
The original refinery was part-and-parcel of the Mint building when it opened in 1899. Today what we call the old Melt House is a relic from that era where a traditional gold pouring demonstration is a spectacular highlight for visitors.
The first refinery was designed to process raw gold from the newly discovered and highly-productive Western Australian goldfields. It employed the Miller Chlorination Process, developed by the Sydney Mint’s Francis Bowyer Miller, to remove silver and base metal impurities that characterised Australian gold.
As a colonial branch of the Royal Mint at this time, The Perth Mint’s quality was closely monitored by London. In successfully producing 22-carat gold for more than 106 million sovereigns by 1931, however, our company forebears developed a reputation for excellence of which we're still proud.
In 1957, The Perth Mint raised the bar higher when refinery Officer Leo Hickey and Senior Craftsman Alexander Osborne produced six nines gold - 999.999 parts of gold per thousand - as measured by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. The Royal Mint was so impressed that it ordered some of the gold as the benchmark for its own standards.
With the commencement of the Australian Bullion Coin Program in 1986, the need for expansion became pressing. A modern facility was designed and built on an industrial site outside the city, where refining and manufacturing commenced in 1990.
The modern Perth Mint refinery is Australia’s only major gold refiner. We currently refine the total annual production of gold in Australia, as well as doré and scrap sourced from surrounding countries. Output is typically between 300 tonnes and 400 tonnes per annum, though that does not represent our total capacity.
The and now... an historical picture taken in the original Perth Mint refinery, which moved offsite to modern premises in 1990.
Investors will be most interested, perhaps, in the fact that The Perth Mint refinery, which produces our cast bar range from 99.99% pure gold and 99.9% pure silver, is accredited with the:
• London Bullion Market Association • New York Mercantile Exchange (COMEX Division) • Tokyo Commodity Exchange • Dubai Multi Commodities Centre
Not only a world-renowned Mint, we are also an internationally recognised refining business – a fact that should not be lost on those now seriously considering gold and silver bullion investments.
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