Welcome to Issue 116

What happens when you mix assayers, scientists, refiners, central bankers, vendors, regulators, and sales personnel, and give them interesting presentations and time to mingle with good food and drink? You get the LBMA Assaying and Refining Conference, which brings together people from different parts of the precious metals industry to talk about the technical issues.

This year marks the eleventh Assaying and Refining Conference (A&R) – another Stewart Murray legacy – that began in 2005. I recall he felt bad about having to raise LBMA fees that year, and thought that hosting a symposium on Assaying and Refining might enhance LBMA’s value proposition for Refiners. For those of us who attended the first A&R, it was a revelation! We could talk to people who do the same things we do each day, and we learnt that we all have many of the same problems. Also, everyone dreads inventory time!

There was overall support to repeat this meeting every two years. By bringing technical people together, there have been some very positive developments from these Conferences, such as:

• More industry connections through networking events at the Conference
• The development and sale of gold, silver, palladium and platinum reference materials by LBMA and LPPM – an essential component of Good Delivery best practice
• Annual Proficiency Testing Programme by LBMA
• Generation of a reference archive for past A&R presentations, which is a useful resource on the LBMA website.

We are fortunate to have two outstanding keynote speakers for the 2025 edition of the A&R. Prof. Kim Esbensen (KHE Consulting, Denmark) will provide an address on the importance of sampling in settling disputes that involve going to umpire assays. The second will be given by Mr. Russ Calow (Calow Laboratory Consulting Ltd, Canada), who will be giving us his perspective on the commercial geochemistry laboratory industry over his 40-year career.

There is also a strong technical programme with 25 presentations covering a wide range of topics. Additionally, there is a general interest presentation from Prof. Ann-Marie Carey, School of Jewellery, Birmingham City University, who will talk about the restoration of the Staffordshire Hoard Helmet, which was originally made of precious metals.

I always come away from the A&R with stronger industry connections, as well as new ideas inspired by the fascinating insights shared by speakers.

I hope you enjoy this issue, and I hope to see many of you at the A&R!