North America is home to eight GDL refiners (and one in South America) and more than 25 non-GDL companies that are involved in either refining or smelting gold or silver. With this in mind, LBMA commissioned Metals Focus to provide an overview of the industry in North America, highlighting some of the key players and the market segments that support precious metals refining and smelting across the region.
To help achieve this, Metals Focus used a combination of its own proprietary supply/demand data for gold and silver, together with LBMA’s country-of-origin (COO) statistics. As many readers will be aware, LBMA recently published their data for 2022, and Metals Focus draws on this across much of this report. This Spotlight also includes an overview of sampling and assaying. While this is clearly part of a global industry, we have taken the opportunity of this report to highlight the role this sector plays in the refining and smelting industry.