Refining Charges

Refining charges are standard for base metal concentrates and semi-refined metals. Refining charges are attached to payable analytes because refining charges are based upon the particular tonnage of analyte refined. Refining charges are associated with the process that the buyer of a raw material (for example, base metal concentrates) performs to obtain refined metals from the material. It is expressed as a charge per unit (for example, pound, gram, ounce) of payable metal for each of the analytes.

The main difference between treatment charges and refining charges is that treatment charges are related to the entirety of the product, whereas refining charges relate to a specific analyte (that is, element; for example, silver) and relate to the metal units (for example, troy ounce).

Refining charges can have escalating tiers, where changes to the amount charged can occur depending on the assays, and so on.