Urban mining, which recovers gold from items already above ground, has become a key supply source in New Zealand. At the forefront is New Zealand Gold Merchants, the countryโs largest dedicated bullion refinery, where a sharp rise in scrap gold volumes is entering its Onehunga facility.
โApril was our biggest month on record,โ said managing director Tony Coleman. โWeโre the largest buyer of gold jewellery in New Zealand, and most of it goes into refining. We call this urban miningโ.
For over 50 years, New Zealand Gold Merchants have been buying old and broken jewellery, and every piece has a story to tell. Back in the day, people found their way to the companyโs site in the industrial back blocks of Penrose. They would bring in treasures passed down through generations, sometimes dating as far back as the 1860s. Tales of pocket watches crossing oceans from England and ending up in gold rush towns like Dunedin, Timaru, and Greymouth were common. Even then, people were trading gold for what they needed.
One of the most common items brought to the counter is a single gold earring, or sometimes a collection of single gold earrings. People bring these in after losing hope of ever finding the pair.
Turning scrap into bars
Inside the Onehunga refinery, the process of reclaiming gold is meticulous. Head refiner Chris Coleman explained that the team starts by melting scrap jewellery into bars before assessing the purity.
โWe melt scrap gold items down into a bar, then analyse its purity,โ he said. โThat bar is turned into splatter, which looks like golden cornflakes. This increases the surface area and makes it easier to wash away silver, platinum, palladium and other metals.โ
After repeated washes and multiple furnace cycles, the splatter becomes a dense, clay-like material known as cake. It is then melted one final time to form pure gold bars, certified under the NZ PUREโข brand.
The company also refines lemel, the tiny shavings of precious metals collected by manufacturing jewellers. Each batch is tested using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to identify the metal composition before refining.
A growing public interest
Today, younger people and middle-income earners are embracing urban mining by recycling unwanted jewellery. The value of gold continues to bring opportunities to hundreds of New Zealand Gold Merchants clients.
Peter Coleman, a director at New Zealand Gold Merchants, said goldโs appeal extends far beyond the wealthy.
โGold is often seen as something for the rich, but itโs actually for everybody,โ he said. โYou can start regularly saving in gold from $50 a month through our GoldSaver plan.โ
He added that goldโs tactile and visual qualities continue to resonate. โItโs an absolutely beautiful metal.โ
With geopolitical uncertainty, strong gold prices and increasing interest in recycling, urban mining is proving to be a modern way to source one of the worldโs oldest and most enduring assets without the need for a shovel. Could your old jewellery be more valuable than you realise?
Note: GoldSaver is a regular savings plan that allows customers to purchase and store physical gold. It is not a managed investment scheme. The value of gold can go up or down and past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
To find out more about GoldSaver and open an account, visit gogold.co.nz/goldsaver
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