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Assay & refining supplies: where to buy

An assay tells you how much gold, silver or other metal a rock or a concentrate really contains. It matters when you find a quartz vein with sulfides, black sand that may hold gold you cannot see, or a claim you are thinking of buying: an experienced eye can estimate visible gold, but not the gold you cannot see.

Fire assay is the standard method. The crushed sample is melted with fluxes, and the gold and silver it contained are collected and measured. It destroys the sample and needs a lab, but it is the method mines and refineries rely on to value ore. XRF analyzers, often handheld, read a sample with X-rays in a few minutes without damaging it; they are widely used on jewelry and clean metal, but on raw ore their results need care and a fire assay is the safer number.

Shops that offer assays either test samples themselves or send them to a lab. Before you send yours, ask which method they use, how much material they need and how the result is reported, for example in ounces or grams per ton.

3 shops across the US that sell assay & refining supplies. Each one links to its own website, so you can compare them one by one.

• A & B Prospecting Supplies (Mesa)

  Dealer · Storefront · Mesa, Arizona · Ships nationwide

  Prospecting store since 1979: Minelab, Garrett, Fisher, Keene, Falcon

  Prospecting supply store in Mesa and one of the best known in Arizona, listed by ICMJ as a trusted vendor. It sells Minelab, Garrett, Fisher and Falcon metal detectors; drywashers, sluices, highbankers and recirculating units; dredges, pumps and parts; pans, classifiers and fine-gold concentrators; hand tools, rock crushers, books and beginner kits; and assay and refining supplies such as furnaces, chemicals and labware. A second store is in Prescott Valley.

  Also sells: Metal detectors · Gold pans & classifiers · Sluice boxes · Highbankers & power sluices · Dredges & parts · Drywashers · Picks, shovels & hand tools · Fine gold recovery

  abprospecting.com ↗Eureka listing →

• A & B Prospecting Supplies (Prescott Valley)

  Dealer · Storefront · Prescott Valley, Arizona · Ships nationwide

  A&B's second store, a short drive from Lynx Creek

  Second store of A & B Prospecting Supplies, in Prescott Valley in the gold country of central Arizona, with the same range as the Mesa store: metal detectors, drywashers, sluices, highbankers, dredge parts, pans and classifiers, fine-gold concentrators, hand tools and assay supplies.

  Also sells: Metal detectors · Gold pans & classifiers · Sluice boxes · Highbankers & power sluices · Dredges & parts · Drywashers · Picks, shovels & hand tools · Fine gold recovery

  abprospecting.com ↗Eureka listing →

• Rob's Detector Sales

  Dealer · Online or by order · Surprise, Arizona · Ships nationwide

  Minelab certified gold trainer; Coiltek, Nugget Finder, Detech coils

  Online metal detector dealer in Surprise, northwest of Phoenix, run by Rob Allison, a nugget hunter who posts on YouTube as Nuggethunting. It sells detectors from Minelab, Nokta, XP, Garrett, Fisher and other brands, gold coils from Coiltek, Detech and Nugget Finder, headphones, pinpointers, picks and scoops, panning kits, smelting and refining supplies, books and used equipment.

  Also sells: Metal detectors · Gold pans & classifiers · Picks, shovels & hand tools

  robsdetectors.com ↗Eureka listing →

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