Estimate the cost of refining a precious-metal lot before you accept a settlement. Enter gross weight, assay purity, recovery, payable metal, reference price, and each quoted charge to calculate recovered fine-metal weight, total refiner fees, effective fee rate, estimated net payout, and break-even reference price.
Last Updated: July 21, 2026
Precious Metal Refining Fee Calculator
Model assay, recovery, settlement, and fee terms without assuming a standard refinery rate.
Recovery and Settlement Terms
Enter terms from the same written quote. Recovery, payable percentage, and price deduction affect value before separate fees.
Refining and Transaction Fees
Leave an unused charge at zero. Do not enter a cost again if it is already built into recovery, payable percentage, or price deduction.
Estimated Refinery Settlement
Enter the lot, recovery, price, and quoted charges to estimate a refinery settlement.
| Fee component | Entered or calculated basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Calculate a lot to view the fee breakdown. | ||
| Reference-price change | Reference price | Payable value before fees | Total refiner fees | Estimated net payout | Net payout vs theoretical value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calculate a lot to view price scenarios. | |||||
Scenario rows change only the entered reference price. They keep weight, assay, recovery, payable percentage, price deduction, and all fee terms unchanged.
What Is a Precious Metal Refining Fee Calculator?
A precious metal refining fee calculator estimates how a refiner's technical and commercial terms affect the amount you receive from a metal lot. It starts with incoming weight and assay purity, applies process recovery and the payable percentage, values the payable fine metal, then subtracts the quoted refining and transaction charges.
The result is more detailed than multiplying weight by a spot price. Gross jewelry, industrial scrap, bench sweeps, dental material, electronic material, dore, and mixed manufacturing residues rarely settle as if every gram were pure and immediately marketable. Assay, sampling, melting, process loss, minimum charges, settlement timing, and payment method can change the final figure.
This tool works for gold, silver, platinum, palladium, or another metal when you have a single-metal reference price and a reasonable estimate of its assay. For a lot containing several payable metals, calculate each metal separately and then combine the results only if the refiner's fee schedule supports that method. A refinery may charge one lot-level minimum instead of a separate minimum for each metal.
How to Use This Calculator
- Select one currency for all money inputs. The currency selector formats results but does not apply an exchange rate.
- Describe the metal lot and choose a purity preset or enter the assay percentage directly.
- Enter incoming gross weight and its unit. Exclude packaging unless the refiner includes it in accepted lot weight.
- Enter process recovery. This represents the estimated portion of assayed fine metal recovered through the selected process.
- Enter the payable percentage. This is the portion of recovered metal credited to your settlement.
- Enter the reference price and matching price unit, such as price per troy ounce or gram.
- Add any stated settlement-price deduction or spread below the reference price.
- Enter each quoted fee once. The calculator supports a value percentage, a charge per gross unit, a charge per payable fine unit, fixed fees, a minimum total refiner fee, and seller-paid outside costs.
- Select Calculate Refining Fees. Review the fine-weight chain, fee table, price scenarios, and payout percentage.
- Compare the result with the refiner's written quote, assay rules, price-lock terms, and final settlement statement.
Keep fee units consistent with the quote. If the refiner charges $8 per fine troy ounce, select fine troy ounce. If the charge is $0.25 per incoming gram, select grams as the gross weight unit. Changing a unit without changing the quoted rate changes the economics of the calculation.
Precious Metal Refining Fee Formula
Recovered fine weight = assayed fine weight × process recovery
Payable fine weight = recovered fine weight × payable percentage
Payable value before fees = payable fine units × reference price × (1 − price deduction)
Calculated refiner charges = value fee + gross-unit fee + fine-unit fee + assay fee + other refiner fees
Total refiner fees = greater of calculated refiner charges or minimum refiner fee
Estimated net payout = max(0, payable value − total refiner fees − seller outside costs)
The calculator converts weights through kilograms. One troy ounce equals 31.1034768 grams. A regular avoirdupois ounce equals 28.349523125 grams, so selecting the wrong ounce changes fine weight, value, and per-unit charges.
Worked Refining Fee Example
Assume a 250-gram 18K gold jewelry lot assays at 75% gold. The assayed fine-gold weight is 187.5 grams. With 98.5% process recovery, recovered fine gold is 184.6875 grams. If 99% of recovered gold is payable, the settlement credits 182.840625 grams, about 5.8785 troy ounces.
At an entered reference price of $3,300 per troy ounce, the assayed theoretical value is $19,893.27. A 0.5% settlement-price deduction and the recovery and payable terms reduce payable value before fees to $19,301.93.
Now enter a 1.5% value fee, $0.25 per incoming gram, $8 per payable fine troy ounce, a $75 assay fee, and $25 of other refiner fees. Calculated refiner charges equal $499.06, above the $150 minimum. Add $40 of insured shipping, and all-in cost becomes $539.06. Estimated net payout is $18,762.88, or 94.32% of assayed theoretical value. These numbers are a calculator example, not a typical or recommended refinery quote.
Fees and Deductions Included
| Term | How this calculator treats it | What to confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Assay purity | Converts gross weight into assayed fine-metal weight. | Sampling method, assay method, split samples, and dispute procedure. |
| Process recovery | Reduces assayed fine weight to estimated recovered fine weight. | Whether recovery is guaranteed, estimated, or settled from final production. |
| Payable percentage | Credits only the stated share of recovered fine metal. | Whether the unpaid balance replaces another refining charge. |
| Price deduction | Reduces the entered reference price before cash valuation. | Benchmark, fixing date, currency, time, and bid or ask convention. |
| Value-based fee | Applies a percentage to payable value before fees. | Whether the percentage uses gross value, recovered value, or final settlement value. |
| Per-unit charges | Supports separate rates per incoming gross unit and payable fine unit. | The precise weight basis and whether rounding applies. |
| Fixed and minimum fees | Adds assay and other fees, then raises refiner fees to the entered minimum when needed. | Which components count toward the minimum and whether each lot or metal gets a separate minimum. |
| Outside costs | Subtracts shipping, insurance, or other seller-paid costs after refiner charges. | Insurance limit, loss responsibility, return shipping, and payment fees. |
Recovery, Payable Metal, and Fees Are Different
Recovery is a physical processing estimate. It describes how much assayed fine metal the process is expected to recover. Payable percentage is a commercial settlement term. It describes how much recovered metal the refiner credits to you. A separate refining fee is a monetary charge. Treating all three as one percentage hides where value changes.
For example, 98% recovery followed by 99% payable does not equal a 3% fee. The combined credited quantity is 97.02% of assayed fine metal before any price spread or monetary charges. If the refiner also pays 99.5% of the reference price, value retained before fees becomes about 96.53% of theoretical assayed value.
Ask whether quoted recovery is a fixed schedule, a minimum guarantee, or an estimate. Complex residues can require sampling and treatment steps that differ from clean bullion or karat-gold scrap. The calculator does not predict metallurgical performance.
Why Minimum Fees Matter for Small Lots
A minimum fee creates a floor. If percentage and per-unit charges total $90 but the stated minimum is $150, the calculator uses $150 as total refiner fees. The added $60 appears as a minimum-fee adjustment in the fee table.
The same minimum consumes a larger share of a small settlement than a large one. This does not prove that combining lots is best. Holding material creates price, security, storage, and counterparty risks. A refiner may also separate metals, material types, or processing batches and apply more than one minimum.
Use the price-scenario table to see another effect. Fixed charges stay constant as metal value changes. The value-based fee changes with price. As a result, the effective all-in percentage can rise when market value falls, even though the written fixed fees have not changed.
Cash Settlement Versus Metal Return
A cash settlement converts payable metal into money at a stated pricing basis and then subtracts charges. A metal return may credit fine metal to an account or fabricate and ship bullion. Metal return can involve fabrication, bar, withdrawal, storage, transfer, and shipping charges that are not part of a basic refining quote.
The calculator expresses every fee in money and reports a net metal equivalent at the discounted settlement price. That equivalent is a comparison measure, not a prediction of the exact bars, grains, or account ounces a refiner will return. Minimum bar sizes, fabrication tolerances, account rules, and residual balances matter.
How to Compare Refinery Quotes
- Compare quotes for the same material description, gross weight, and expected assay.
- Ask how the sample is taken and whether you receive an assay certificate.
- Confirm recovery and payable percentages separately for every valuable metal.
- Identify the exact reference price, fixing time, currency, and settlement date.
- List every value deduction, per-unit fee, lot fee, minimum, and payment charge.
- Ask whether estimates include taxes, duties, environmental fees, and return shipping.
- Compare estimated net payout, not only the advertised refining percentage.
- Review title transfer, insurance, loss responsibility, rejection, and dispute terms.
- Check licensing, business identity, address, reputation, and written customer agreement.
For high-value or unusual material, an independent assay or a second qualified quote may be useful. Do not destroy collectible coins, branded bullion, antique objects, or finished jewelry solely for melt value before checking whether the intact item has greater resale value.
Common Refining Cost Calculation Mistakes
- Using gross weight as pure-metal weight
- Entering 750 fineness as 750% instead of 75%
- Confusing troy ounces with ordinary ounces
- Applying recovery to gross weight instead of assayed fine weight
- Counting a payable deduction again as a percentage fee
- Ignoring a lot minimum on a small shipment
- Using a live market price when the refiner fixes price on another date
- Mixing currencies without converting every money input
- Omitting shipping, insurance, wire, return, or assay dispute costs
- Treating a preliminary assay as a guaranteed final settlement
Methodology and Sources
Weight and price-unit conversions follow NIST precious-metals conversion information. Sampling and assay context follows the LBMA refining publication on sampling and assaying. Refinery quality and bar-assay context follows the LBMA London Good Delivery overview. Consumer context on spreads, fees, price movement, and physical-metal transactions follows the CFTC and FINRA physical-metals bulletin. These sources support measurement and process context. They do not provide the user-entered price, recovery, payable percentage, or fee schedule.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do I calculate precious metal refining fees?
Calculate value-based, gross-unit, fine-unit, assay, and other refiner charges, then compare their sum with the stated minimum fee. Use the greater amount and add seller-paid shipping or outside costs for the all-in total.
What is the difference between assay purity and recovery?
Assay purity measures the fine-metal share of the incoming lot. Recovery estimates the share of that assayed fine metal captured by the refining process. They describe different stages and should be entered separately.
What does payable metal percentage mean?
Payable percentage is the share of recovered fine metal credited in settlement. It is a commercial term and may be lower than process recovery.
How does a minimum refining fee work?
If calculated refiner charges are below the entered minimum, the calculator raises total refiner fees to that minimum. Seller shipping and outside costs are added separately.
Does this calculator use live gold or silver prices?
No. You enter the reference price, currency, and price unit because benchmarks, locations, fixing times, and refinery settlement rules differ.
Can I calculate fees for platinum or palladium?
Yes. Enter the relevant gross weight, assay, recovery, payable percentage, reference price, and quoted fees. Refining terms can differ by metal and material type.
Why is the net payout lower than metal value?
Recovery, payable percentage, settlement-price deduction, refiner fees, and seller costs all reduce the result from assayed theoretical value. The fee table separates monetary charges from value reductions before fees.
What is net metal equivalent?
Net metal equivalent converts estimated cash payout back into metal units at the discounted settlement price. It is a comparison measure and does not guarantee the quantity or form of metal a refiner will return.
Does the estimate guarantee a refinery settlement?
No. Final results depend on accepted weight, representative sampling, assay, actual recovery, payable terms, price fixing, fees, taxes, shipping, legal requirements, and the refinery agreement.