Gauteng Refinery is part of a group of companies which has been active for over 30 years in precious metals beneficiation throughout Africa.
It is in the business of recovering and refining gold and silver, and the platinum group metals: platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium.

Piers du Plessis - Director
Piers spent over 20 years at Anglo Platinum in metallurgical operations and process design, is a member of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM) and a member of the Mine Metallurgical Managers’ Association of South Africa (MMMA).

Refilwe Monageng is an Executive Director of White Rivers Exploration (WRE), which has a joint venture company with Harmony Gold. He has served on the Minerals and Petroleum Board of South Africa since February 2015. He is also the founding member of Refilwe Monageng Trading Enterprises, a global industrial company that is a strategic partner to the Commonwealth Enterprise and investment Council.

Refilwe recently participated in the 2017 Commonwealth Study Conference (CSC) of which HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, President and Patron. CSCLeaders assembles exceptional leaders from across the Commonwealth to tackle challenges, build global relationships and develop the cultural intelligence needed by the leaders of tomorrow

Refilwe is also an investor in Gauteng Refinery.

Chris Horsley – Sourcing Manager
Chris is an extractive metallurgist by profession and spent the first 15 years of his career working for Anglo American running metallurgical facilities.

In 1996 Chris transferred to Rand Refinery where he held various senior management positions in operations, marketing and sourcing and was part of the Executive Team for a number of years.

Chris was also part of the responsible gold team at the World Gold Council who compiled the Conflict Free Gold Standard.

Carl Homveld – Business Unit Manager/ Sales and Marketing Manager
During his first year of employment at Armscor he received a bursary to study chemistry which soon became his passion.

During this time he held various executive management positions including Managing Director at a German multinational where he worked for 21 years.

Gauteng Refinery defines its stakeholders as clients, government, regulatory bodies, investors, industry players, employees, suppliers and communities.

The company actively engages all of the aforementioned during the course of its daily business and believes that relationship building and management are key to fuelling the sustainable future of the company and its activities.

We are committed to protecting the interests of stakeholders through communicating our business practices and policies and by operating with trust, transparency and in a responsible and sustainable manner.

The company’s footprint includes several sites in the Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa and has an increasing presence in a number of African countries.
Noteworthy is the fact that Gauteng Refinery sells its products and services throughout the World.

One of the primary aspects of the business is toll refining. This is the processing, recovery and refining of materials (e.g. concentrates, residues, jewellery scrap, auto catalysts, electronic scrap) that contain gold, silver and the six platinum group metals: platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium. This is in general performed on behalf of the owner with recovered and refined metal(s) being returned in a form of their choice.

Gauteng Refinery has no set of terms and conditions, and agreements are structured to suit
individual clients.

A view of Gauteng Refinery’s Mintek site

Each batch of material from a customer is processed individually and retains its identity throughout the process, thus maintaining the integrity of the metal accounting principles, as well as ensuring an accurate and precise metal balance across each batch of material processed.

The company has access to facilities provided by an international service provider that will facilitate the financing of the refining metal inventory and pipeline. This includes a comprehensive range of customised financial services and tools to help Gauteng Refinery protect its margins and manage volatility. Additionally, because Gauteng Refinery has access to a FX pricing platform that can price gold at any time and/ or hedge; and with an efficient mechanism for USD/ ZAR conversion, the company can provide a more rapid processing and payment pipeline, whilst the costs and risks of metal price and exchange rate fluctuations are mitigated.

The company has an established relationship with INTL FC Stone, an international metal trader and finance house for the financing of the refining metal inventory and pipeline, on behalf of Gauteng Refinery’s clients.

Gauteng Refinery’s client base includes corporate organisations such as Anglo American, De Beers, Pan African Resources and Rand Refinery.

Feedstock for toll refining is sourced in a manner which ensures conformance with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Due Diligence Guidance for minerals from conflict affected and high risk areas, as well as the requirements of the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) and the London Bullion Market Association’s (LBMA) Responsible Gold Guidance.

The term Urban Mining refers to the recovery of precious metals from the processing and value recovery from materials that originate and have become disposable from the technical era and include inter alia electronic waste, spent auto catalysts, used X-ray and photographic film.

20 to 50 million metric tons of e-waste are disposed of Worldwide every year. In the United States of America, e‑waste is still the fastest growing municipal waste stream. Americans dump cell phones containing over $60 million in gold and silver every year.

Recycling one million laptops saves the energy equivalent of the electricity used by 3,657 homes in the USA every year. It takes 245 kgs of fossil fuel, 22 kgs of chemicals, and 1,5 tonnes of water to manufacture one computer and monitor.

It is estimated that around 80 000 tons of electronic waste are generated in South Africa per year. For every million cell phones that are recycled, 16 tons of copper, 350 kg of silver, 195 kg of gold and 15 kg of palladium can be recovered, yet only 12.5% of all electronic waste is currently recycled.

Several initiatives have been introduced via the Urban Mining Business Unit which involve the recycling of suitable waste streams arising from e-waste, X-rays and spent auto catalysts. All of this has historically been exported for treatment and recycling companies in Europe, the Far East and USA.

Increased awareness around the benefits of processing the listed waste streams in South Africa instead, has been brought to the attention of relevant government institutions to support growth of local businesses including waste collectors and to assist local job creation.

Various other waste streams are also treated and recycled including mine residues, tailings and spent catalysts. Gauteng Refinery has long standing associations with many recycling companies and mining houses.

Our group of companies has over 30 hard earned years of experience in managing by-products, residues and wastes, with the associated environmental and other benefits.

A key part of this has been innovative partnering with Mining and Metallurgical operations for:

Site Clean Ups
Based on an upfront resource map and work plan, materials are extracted from infrastructure, equipment, smelt houses, bag houses, precipitators and other for subsequent precious metals recovery and refining.

Residues
On or off site recovery from materials such as dusts, fines, carbon fines, wood chips and slags.

Waste Materials

• Solid wastes such as crucibles, refractories
• Liquid wastes such as mine runoff, tailings dam return water, effluents

Gauteng Refinery has proprietary technology to remove contained precious metals down to single figure part per million, whilst also treating effluents fit for discharge in compliance with all legislative, sustainable and moral requirements.

• Airborne emissions

As with all of the company’s activities, the above is done in close conjunction with Mine Management and Operations Personnel based on full transparency, trust and technical competency.

With a proud history extending as far back as 1934, Mintek is a leading provider of minerals processing and metallurgical engineering products and services to industries Worldwide.

Gauteng Refinery’s site at Mintek was acquired from Harmony Gold and for more than 20 years has been recovering and refining gold and platinum group metals.

The company’s relationship with Mintek began in 2015 and due to this partnership, the company enjoys access to shared resources and facilities through several formal collaboration agreements.

It is a strategic alliance that has benefited both parties and continues to contribute to the success of excellence in product delivery.

The company recognises the vital importance of meeting all customer requirements in a highly competitive market place. We are proud to have sound and long standing relationships with many of our clients and to have had these close associations which are built on trust and dependability.

Gauteng Refinery has established strict policies, procedures and processes to ensure that it conforms to particular standards, frameworks and guidances. All material at Gauteng Refinery is of known provenance. Systems have been established and implemented to enable an independent third party to verify all stages of processing in order to provide assurance on the veracity and origin of all material.

The company has a code of practice which complies with the regulations and all the requirements of the South African Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator (SADPMR), as well as all the relevant Acts of Parliament in the precious metals arena.

Gauteng Refinery has fulfilled its obligations in terms of the Mining Charter in respect of the board-based black economic empowerment requirements and achieved its status as a Level 3 Contributor in 2015. Our Verification Certificate can be downloaded here.

We are a member of the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) and are working towards conformance and accreditation with its Code of Practice, Chain of Custody and the principles of the Responsible Gold Guidance.

Whilst the company is not a member of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), it does conform to the LBMA’s principles contained in the Responsible Gold Guidance.

Similarly, although not a member, Gauteng Refinery adheres to the World Gold Council's Conflict Free Gold Standard.

Gauteng Refinery recognises the imperative to operate according to the principles of zero harm to its people, customers and the environment. It is committed to establishing and maintaining the highest practicable standard of occupational Health and Safety for all personnel. The company has in place a Health and Safety Policy to which all employees must comply and which all employees have signed.. The Full Policy is available for download here.

As part of the company’s obligations, it has in place Health and Safety representatives as well as a Health and Safety committee.

Gauteng Refinery has comprehensive and interactive Health and Safety training programmes which ensure that its employees have a clear understanding of its health and safety practices and procedures. The training programmes include specific external training and are currently being expanded to include occupational health training and routine scheduled medical surveillance and medical counselling.

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South African Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator

The Responsible Jewellery Council

The London Bullion Market Association

The World Gold Council

International Platinum Group Metals Association

International Precious Metals Institute

Platinum Group Metals

Platinum Guild International

Platinum Metals Review

Precious Platinum

The PGM Database

Radiology Business Management Association

Kitco

The following information is available for you to download in PDF format:

Types of Materials We Accept

Supply Chain Due Diligence Policy

Safety, Health and Environment Policy

BBBEE Verification Certificate

Internship-and Learnership Programmes Application Process

Quick Facts on Precious Metals and PGMs