Bars or grain: choosing the form of your refined gold

When a lot is booked in for refining we ask one question that new clients sometimes have not thought about: what form do you want it back in? The answer is agreed at intake, it determines what is cast at the end of the process, and it is worth deciding on purpose rather than by default.

Cast bars

Our standard bar is 1kg, cast at either 995 or 999.9 fineness. Every bar is serial numbered at cast, and that serial number is recorded against the assay result for the lot it came from. Bars are the right form when the gold is going to be held, sold on, or used as settlement: a bar with a serial number and a certificate behind it is a unit another party can check, which is what makes it tradeable. It is also the form we buy back on our own account, and the form we can hold against a future purchase if you would rather not take delivery yet.

Grain

Grain, or granules, is 999.9 gold atomised into small beads and sold by weight rather than by unit. It exists for one reason: manufacturers who alloy or cast from it. A jeweller making 18-karat stock needs to weigh out fine gold and alloy precisely, and grain lets them take exactly the weight they need without cutting or remelting a bar. Grain carries no serial number, because there is no unit to stamp; its provenance is the lot certificate it was refined under.

If your gold is going straight back into production, grain saves a step. If it is going anywhere else, bars are the better form.

995 or 999.9

Both grades are available in bars; grain is 999.9 only. The choice between them is mostly about what happens next. Gold that will be alloyed down for jewellery does not need to start at 999.9, since the alloying step sets the final karat anyway. Gold that will be traded as bullion, held, or used to settle a purchase should be 999.9, because that is the fineness the bullion market prices closest to the metal value. Our post on gold fineness covers what the two figures actually mean.

Decide at intake

The form is agreed when the lot is booked, because it decides the last step of the process: cast into a mould, or atomised into grain. It can be changed before refining starts, but not after the metal is poured. If you plan to take settlement in metal rather than AED, say so at the same time; the refined output then comes back to you in the form you chose, or is netted against metal we already hold for you.

A note on silver

Silver follows the same logic with one difference. We refine and cast silver at 999.0, as 1kg bars and as grain, but silver is not traded on our own account. Silver output goes back to the client; bullion trading is gold only. The full specification for every bar and grain product is on our products page.