Smelter-Refinery

A refinery open to all: the precedent set in Dottignies (Mouscron)

Fifteen years ago, a private individual did not walk through the door of a gold refinery in Europe. There was no door. We built one, and we opened it to everyone.

Gold & Silver Company (GSC) is a Belgian precious metals refinery established in Dottignies (Mouscron). GSC calls "Néo-fonderie" its integrated model bringing together the laboratory, spectrometric analysis, melting, refining, the production of bars, storage and wealth guidance for private individuals and professionals alike.

The exact scope of this precedent

Precision is the only honest way to state a historical claim. So let us be precise.

We do not claim to be the first foundry ever to exist: Europe has been melting gold since Antiquity. Nor do we claim to be the continent's first industrial refinery: major establishments have been refining metal for more than a century, and some do it remarkably well.

What we affirm is something else: Gold & Silver Company was the first integrated refinery in Europe to open its chain directly to the public, to private individuals and professionals alike, without intermediaries. Small holders and large investors, savers and wholesalers: the same door, the same laboratory, the same metal, the same consideration. No discrimination of background, status or volume.

This model did not exist. It had to be designed, against the practices of the time.

A historically closed sector

Fifteen years ago, the industrial precious metals sector operated as a closed circle. The major players worked almost exclusively with professionals. And even then, not with all of them.

The pattern was the same everywhere. The refinery chose its commercial partners, often a single one per country, under exclusivity agreements. To hope to be part of it, you had to submit a formal application, promise volumes, commit to commercial performance, then await a decision that was never guaranteed. Serious houses were refused access for failing to promise enough tonnes.

You had to promise tonnes to deserve a handshake.

The private individual did not exist in any of these equations. The saver who wanted a bar paid for it at the end of a cascade of tiers: the refinery sold to the exclusive distributor, who sold to the wholesaler, who sold to the reseller, who sold to the client. Each tier took its margin. None opened its door.

The principle we established

We laid down a principle that seems obvious today and that broke with the sector's practices: the private individual is a legitimate client of the industrial chain. Not a second-rate outlet, not a commercial risk, not an administrative complication. A legitimate clientele, on the same footing as the professional.

So we opened the chain, directly. The professional, broker, jeweller or wholesaler, accesses the refinery without exclusivity to negotiate or volumes to promise. The private individual accesses exactly the same chain, whether bringing three inherited coins or building a substantial wealth position. No one goes through an intermediate tier. No one pays the margin of a link that melted nothing, analysed nothing, guaranteed nothing.

This openness can be summed up simply: a complete integrated model, created by Gold & Silver Company, accessible directly, without brokerage fees or tax levied at source. It is in this sense that the house was the first: the first to have opened this model to both private individuals and professionals. The price announced is the amount paid.

An integrated refinery: what is it?

The word "integrated" is not an ornament. It describes an industrial reality: every stage of the metal's life is brought together under one roof and one responsibility. The laboratory that analyses. The spectrometry that assays the metal to the thousandth. The melting and refining that purify it. The production that transforms it into certified bars. The storage that protects it. The wealth guidance that places it within a long-term strategy.

Most market players master none of these stages. They are brokers: they buy a price in order to resell the metal to a refinery, and their value stops at that spread. Many of them, moreover, entrust their lots to GSC's workshops: they are respected professional clients of the house, not adversaries. We work for them, never against them. The distinction is not a moral hierarchy, it is a difference in nature.

A broker sells a price. A refinery masters the metal.

Integrated and ethical: metal in a short circuit

Integration made a second choice possible, as structuring as the opening to the public: the short circuit of the metal. The gold melted, refined and transformed in our laboratory comes essentially from European recycling: jewellery, coins and used bars brought in by GSC clients, put back into circulation as bars assayed and certified in-house. Our stock is you. Our certification is us.

This choice has a cost. It exposes the house to stock shortages when collection slows down: that is the proof that the metal does not come from a distant, opaque supply chain whose history no one can guarantee. Ethics cannot be delegated. It is practised, under supervision: GSC is approved by the Royal Mint of Belgium (RMB) and is controlled by a State assayer.

It is this double requirement, the integration of the chain and the mastery of origin, that defines the house: a refinery where the metal is worked under one roof and where its origin is documented.

Fifteen years on: what openness has produced

The best proof that a rule deserved to be overturned is what grows where it fell. According to GSC's internal data, more than 100,000 private and professional clients have been assisted over the past fifteen years.

At Gold & Silver Company, this figure can be observed every week, concretely. On the same morning, in Dottignies (Mouscron), a family brings in three inherited Napoleons for appraisal while a trading professional has several kilos assayed for remelting. Same spectrometer, same weighing before the client's eyes, same transparency on fineness and weight. The small lot does not wait for the large one to be served.

Trust is not declared. It is documented. Every operation produces its evidence: analysis, weighing, nominative receipt, certificate. It is this documentation, repeated tens of thousands of times, that has given this choice of openness its solidity: not a proclaimed conviction, a proven practice.

Our commitments

What was opened here fifteen years ago will not be closed again. The house commits to it:

• The door remains open to all. Private individuals and professionals, directly, without sponsorship, without volume promises, without entry fees.
• No discrimination by size. Three coins receive the same analysis, the same precision and the same consideration as three hundred.
• The price announced is the amount paid. No brokerage fees, no tax levied at source.
• The chain remains integrated. Laboratory, spectrometry, melting, refining, production, storage, guidance: under one roof, under one responsibility.
• The metal remains traceable and European. Recycled, remelted and certified in Dottignies (Mouscron), controlled by a State assayer.
• Brokers remain our partners. We work for them, never against them. Openness is not a war, it is a model.

Fifteen years ago, we took the view that gold did not belong to a circle, but to those who hold it. That conviction has not changed. It structures every one of our decisions.

Physical gold does not promise. It exists. This house resembles it.

The workshops: equipment and security

The workshops of Gold & Silver Company bring together all the equipment dedicated to the treatment and analysis of precious metals: induction furnaces, spectrometers and densimeters, certified scales for weighing gold, silver and precious stones, precision tools, a refining station and an ingot shaping unit. All operations are performed in-house, within a controlled technical environment.

Security is central. Access is through a secure airlock with electric doors, the windows are bulletproof, the offices are fully reinforced and designed to protect every transaction from outside view, and the site is continuously monitored by indoor and outdoor cameras, 24/7. The building is located in a secured banking district, less than one hundred metres from a police station.

This setup provides a compliant and controlled framework for receiving, analysing and valuing precious metals, with a level of security consistent with a professional refinery activity. The instruments that assess customers' items are those of the working refinery: this assessment is part of the work of the house's college of experts.

Key points

• Gold & Silver Company (GSC) was the first integrated refinery in Europe to open its chain directly to the public, private individuals and professionals alike, without intermediaries.
• The claim is precisely delimited: neither the first foundry in history, nor the first industrial refinery, but the first integrated structure open to all, without discrimination of status or volume.
• Fifteen years ago, the sector operated through exclusive partnerships, often a single partner per country, by application, with volume promises and no guarantee of acceptance.
• The integrated model brings together laboratory, spectrometry, melting, refining, production, storage and wealth guidance under one responsibility.
• The metal comes from European recycling, remelted and certified in Dottignies (Mouscron), controlled by a State assayer.

Frequently asked questions

Is Gold & Silver Company the first gold refinery in Europe?

No, and we have never claimed to be. Industrial refineries have been refining metal in Europe for more than a century. GSC was, however, the first integrated refinery in Europe to open its chain directly to private individuals and professionals alike, without intermediaries or exclusivity agreements. It is a primacy of openness, not of seniority, and that is precisely what makes it solid.

Can a private individual really deal directly with a refinery?

Yes. It is the founding principle of the house: the same door, the same laboratory and the same price grid for everyone, from the holder of a few coins to the trading professional. No intermediary comes between the client and the industrial chain, no distribution margin is added to the price of the metal. The price announced is the amount paid.

What is the difference between an integrated refinery and a gold broker?

A broker buys a price in order to resell the metal to a refinery: he does not melt, does not analyse, does not certify. An integrated refinery masters every stage, from the laboratory to storage. Many brokers are in fact professional clients of our workshops: we work for them. The difference is not a question of seriousness, it is a difference of industrial nature.

Published on 7 August 2026. The editorial team of Gold & Silver Company.