The essentials in thirty seconds. Recycled gold is gold bought from private individuals and professionals across Europe, remelted and refined in a refinery, then recast into new bars. At Gold & Silver Company (GSC), this circuit is entirely internal: the piece of jewellery enters the branch in Belgium, it leaves as a bar. Same purity as mined gold, same quotation, one difference: its origin is proven, transaction by transaction, in the registers of a licensed professional.
Gold does not wear out. So why extract it twice?
Gold is the only precious metal that crosses the centuries without degrading: almost all the gold extracted since Antiquity still exists today, somewhere, in one form or another. A signet ring from the fifties, an inherited bracelet, a coin cast a century ago: it is the same metal, intact, waiting only to be refined once more.
Mining, on the other hand, moves several tonnes of rock for a few grams of gold, on the other side of the world, at the cost of heavy chemical treatment. Recycling starts from a metal already extracted, already refined a first time, already in Europe. Around a quarter of the world's gold supply now comes from recycling. This is not a militant niche, it is an industrial channel, and it is Gold & Silver Company's: the brand remelts gold that has already lived, and proves it.
The closed circuit of the Néo-fonderie
This is the logic of the Néo-fonderie, the integrated refinery model created by the house 15 years ago: a short, closed circuit, entirely gathered under one roof.
The raw material does not arrive from a mine by cargo ship. It comes in through Gold & Silver Company's door: old jewellery, inherited gold, professional stocks, brought to the branch by private individuals and colleagues from all over Europe. Each object is weighed to the hundredth of a gram, analysed, melted then passed through spectrometry for its fineness, before its seller's eyes, and paid at the day's rate.
The metal then goes to the laboratory. Granulation, separation of the metals, refining: the gold comes out at the purity of the investment market's standards and becomes bars struck with the Gold & Silver Company brand. Between the bought-back jewel and the finished bar, there is no international carrier, no middleman trader, no grey area. One building, one team, one register.
For the industrial detail of melting and refining: the Fonderie-Raffinerie page and the workshops.
At Gold & Silver Company, ethics is a register
“Responsible gold”, “sustainable sourcing”, “fair supply chains”: everyone writes it, nobody shows it. GSC holds a simpler, more verifiable position.
Mined gold passes through supply chains that even the most serious players struggle to document: country of extraction, local buying offices, traders, carriers, successive refiners. GSC's recycled gold has a supply chain of a single link: the person who sold it, face to face, identity document in hand, the transaction recorded in the registers required by the status of a registered professional.
That is ethical gold according to Gold & Silver Company: not a purchased label, not a brochure promise, a register kept up to date, transaction by transaction, under the control of the Belgian authorities. The provenance of every remelted gram has a number, a date and an invoice.
What this changes for you
You sell. Your jewellery does not disappear into an anonymous circuit: it is the raw material of GSC bars, remelted on site. Selling to the refinery that transforms the metal itself is also the guarantee that no intermediary takes a cut of your price.
You buy. A GSC bar is gold that already lived a European life before being refined and recast under the brand of the company, approved by the Royal Mint of Belgium (MRB), entered in the Guarantee Register, controlled by a State assayer. Same purity, same quotation as any bar on the market, and a fine story to tell.
You pass it on. Recycled gold carries an idea that speaks to families: one generation's metal becomes the next generation's investment. Nothing is lost, everything is remelted.
The GSC memo
- Gold never degrades: recycling it means not extracting it a second time.
- Around a quarter of the world's gold supply already comes from recycling: an industrial channel, not a niche.
- At GSC, the circuit is closed: jewellery bought back in the branch, melted, refined and recast into bars under one roof.
- Proven origin: every remelted gram matches a recorded transaction, face to face, identity document in hand.
- A bar made from recycled gold has the same purity and the same quotation as any other bar: the gold price does not know the difference.
- No “green bar”, no purchased label: registers, a brand, a State assayer.
Frequently asked questions
Are Gold & Silver Company bars cast in new gold?
New gold does not exist, and a refinery is well placed to say so. All the gold in the world was extracted one day, then melted, remelted, traded and passed down through the generations: what the market calls “new” only ever refers to the latest casting. GSC bars are new as objects, cast, struck and sealed in the company's refinery; the metal itself has already lived: European jewellery, coins and objects bought back in the branch then refined in the laboratory to the purity required by the investment market. That purity is measured, spectrometer in hand, controlled by a State assayer: it is identical to that of any gold on the market. A bar does not make gold younger, it certifies it.
What is recycled gold and is it worth less than gold extracted from mines?
Recycled gold is gold already extracted, jewellery, coins, workshop scrap, bought back then remelted and refined in a refinery to its investment purity. Chemically, it is strictly identical to mined gold: once refined, a gram of fine gold is a gram of fine gold, whatever its previous life. It is therefore worth neither less nor more: the international quotation does not distinguish the origin of the metal, only fineness and weight count. At Gold & Silver Company, the jewellery bought in the branch is remelted on site and recast into bars under the brand of the company, controlled by spectrometry. The difference is not in the price: it is in the provenance, which can be proven.
Why is recycled gold more traceable than mined gold?
Because its supply chain holds in a single link. Mined gold passes through a country of extraction, local buying offices, traders, carriers and sometimes several refineries before arriving in Europe: documenting every step remains largely declarative. GSC's recycled gold is bought face to face, in the branch, from a person identified by their identity document, and every transaction is recorded in the registers of a registered professional. Traceability is not a brochure promise: it is a register, kept transaction by transaction.
Where does the jewellery that Gold & Silver Company transforms into bars come from?
From private individuals and professionals across Europe who sell it in the GSC branch in Belgium: old jewellery, inherited gold, odd coins, stocks and scrap from colleagues' workshops. Never ore, never anonymous lots from opaque circuits. Each lot is weighed to the hundredth of a gram, analysed by spectrometry before its seller's eyes, paid at the day's rate and recorded. This local collection is the exclusive raw material of the brand's bars: the metal has already lived a European life before entering the laboratory. It is the short circuit applied to precious metal: the material comes in through the branch door, not by cargo ship.
Does a bar made from recycled gold have the same value as a classic bar?
Exactly the same. A bar trades on three elements: its fineness, its weight and the trust in the brand that cast it. Gold & Silver Company bars come out of the company's refinery, approved by the Royal Mint of Belgium (MRB), entered in the Guarantee Register, controlled by a State assayer. Their purity is controlled by spectrometry and their quotation follows the international rate. The recycled origin takes nothing away from the value; it adds one thing mined gold cannot offer: a documented provenance, from the bought-back jewel to the finished bar.
Are GSC bars LBMA certified?
No, and the company prefers to say it clearly rather than maintain ambiguity. The LBMA, London Bullion Market Association, accredits “Good Delivery” refiners for the London interbank market, where bars of around 400 ounces, more than twelve kilos, circulate between banks and institutions. It is a wholesale standard designed for that market; it is neither a label of superior purity nor a condition of value for a private individual's investment. A bar trades on its fineness, its weight and the trust in the brand: GSC bars are cast in the company's refinery, assayed by spectrometry, under the approval of the Royal Mint of Belgium, entered in the Guarantee Register, controlled by a State assayer. And the most concrete proof: Gold & Silver Company buys back its own bars, like those of LBMA refiners, at the same rate.
Is recycled gold really better for the environment?
Yes, and there is no need to embellish. Extracting new gold means moving several tonnes of rock for a few grams of metal, with heavy chemical treatment and intercontinental transport. Recycling means remelting a metal already extracted, already refined a first time, already present in Europe: most of the impact was paid a generation ago. That is why around a quarter of the world's gold supply now comes from recycling. Gold & Silver Company does not turn it into a slogan: no “green bar”, no theatrical offsetting. Simply a physical fact, gold does not wear out, and a logical consequence: the most sober metal is the one you do not extract twice.