All users of precious metals must depend on the services of a refiner. We trust them with highly valuable material, but often this trust is blind. There are many ways for a dishonest or inept refiner to abuse this trust. No matter how much we may trust our banker, we don't just send them a bag of cash, tell them to count it and let us know how much they deposited into our account. That's just what we do with our scrap metals, though. Now, more than ever, it is important to ensure that your refiner is honest and conscientious. We probably trust our chosen refiner or we would not be using them, but there is always some degree of doubt. Refiners appeal to this doubt with their advertisements and sales calls exclaiming, "Highest Returns!", "Accurate Assays!", "Honest Results!" Clearly, refiners want us to think their peers are less than trustworthy - or at least incompetent. This paper will discuss some of the problems of homogenizing and dividing samples for comparative analysis, establish a provable method for evenly dividing a large amount of precious metal grindings, and compare the results from various refiners sent identical samples. The purpose of this paper is not to identify "good" or "bad" refiners; therefore, the results are presented anonymously.

Author: Brett Gober