A rugged, precise and accurate new gravimetry method for the determination of gold: an alternative to fire assay method

A new, rugged, precise, accurate and fast primary method of measurement has been proposed for the determination of gold in various gold articles. Precise and accurate measurement of gold is the primary requirement for hall marking and to trade gold internationally, as billions of dollars of gold are trading world wide for the various applications. At present Fire Assay ASTM E 1335-08 is the only Standard Test Method for the determination of Gold, which is accepted internationally. But the method is time consuming, cumbersome and required expertise to perform the test. In the present investigation, a method has been developed gravimetry based on direct determination of gold after reducing gold in zero-valent state by hydroxylamine hydrochloride. Gravimetry is the most reliable technique and having highest metrological qualities in comparison to titremetry and instrumental method and the results of gravimetry are directly traceable to SI unit. The results of gravimetric method are accepted without reference to a standard of the same quantity. Several experiments were carried out with and without impurities and it has been concluded that gold can be determined accurately and precisely in presence of several impurities. Five replicates of approximate 0.2 g gold samples were analyzed following method proposed and percentage purity were found to be 99.993 ± 0.0056 with 95% confidence level (k = 2). The combined uncertainty in gold measurement has also been evaluated using potential sources of the method according to the EURACHEM/GUM guidelines.