Refining Charges

Refining charges are standard for base metal concentrates and semi-refined metals. 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. A refining charge is configured as a payable analyte charge configured in a set of contract terms. The charge is typically expressed as a charge per unit (for example, pound, gram, ounce) of payable metal for the analyte.

The refining charge can be entered as a fixed, calculated or tiered value, or determined from a premium matrix. The premium impacts the invoice value, unit price or payable analyte grade. For refining charges that impact the unit price, the resulting charge value is based on a mass, such as the wet mass or unloaded dry mass. The configuration of the resulting charge value includes settings for rounding of decimal places, minimum and maximum values, how the premium is applied, and how the refining charge affects invoices. For example, for a contract with product pricing, the refining charge may display on the invoice without affecting the total invoice value, or may be included as a separate line item, or included in the calculation of the revenue line item.

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 (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.