Z Jewelry Exchange's Gold refineries provide an economical and environmentally friendly precious metal recovery service. We buy gold scrap and separate the pure gold from the other precious metals and waste materials. Precious metal scrap such as dental gold scrap, placer gold, and gold metal foil is weighed and then smelted. As the gold scrap liquefies in the furnace, borax and soda ash are mixed in to separate the pure gold from other precious and non-precious metals.

Gold Information

• A cubic foot of gold weighs over 1000 pounds!
• More than 80% of the gold in the Mother Lode is still in the ground!
• Gold was made into art objects and jewelry as far back as 4000 BC.
• Gold is the most non-reactive of all metals. It never reacts with oxygen, so it does not rust or tarnish. The gold burial mask of King Tutankhamen looked as brilliant when discovered in 1922 as when it was entombed in 1352 BC.
• Gold is among the most electrically conductive of all metals.
• Gold is the most ductile of all metals, allowing it to be drawn out into tiny wires or threads without breaking. A single ounce of gold can be drawn into a wire 5 miles long!
• Each ounce of gold requires the processing of over 6000 pounds of ore!
• The gold rush of the mid-19th century expended 125 million troy ounces of gold, worth more than $50 billion by today’s standards! The expression “go West young man, go West” was born from the gold rush in the Western United States.
• In 1854 the largest gold nugget ever found was in California at Carson Hill above the Stanislaus River. It weighed 195 pounds and was valued at $43,534.00 in the currency of the day!
• The main producers of gold are South Africa, the United States, Australia, China, Canada and Russia.