Top tips for finding a gold refinery in Dubai | Marcus Briggs
By: Marcus Briggs
Tags: Marcus Briggs, Gold Refinery, Gold Refining, Gold, Dubai

Gold miners or traders looking for a high quality, reputable refinery in Dubai need to know where go and what to look for. Many factors will affect which your choice, including the type of gold you wish to produce.

The United Arab Emirates has several excellent refineries, and Dubai itself is home to some of the best. The Dubai Good Delivery (DGD) Standard accreditation list, maintained by the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), is a good place to start.

Dubai Good Delivery (DGD) Standard

The DMCC developed the DGD as an international benchmark for the production of gold in 2005.

DGD demands a very standard of purity in the gold, and requires gold to be sourced responsibly. DMCC has delisted refineries over concerns about sourcing, including the Sharjah-based Kaloti refinery in 2005.

The current list of DGD accredited refineries includes refineries in the UAE and around the world, including Japan, Switzerland and Turkey, and it shows which refineries have been de-listed.

Best Dubai gold refineries

Two Dubai gold refineries have earned DGD accreditation: Al Etihad and Emirates Gold. Both these refineries are within a few minutes’ drive of each other within the DMCC free zone in Dubai.

Mohamad Shakarchi founded Emirates Gold in 1992, and its Dubai refinery was the first in the Middle East to be listed on the DGD. The company process up to 200 tonnes of gold each year.

Al Etihad is much younger than Emirates, having been founded in 2009, but it is expanding rapidly and received its DGD accreditation in 2012. It is able to process scraps of gold and silver, jewellery and even high-grade doré, as well as smelting large amounts of gold to produce bars and grains of various purity levels.

What makes a good gold refinery?

The two factors which define a refinery’s reputation are the purity of the gold it produces and the way it conducts itself in sourcing and trading.

To receive DGD accreditation a refinery must be able to demonstrate that it can produce a 1kg gold bar which is at least .999 pure gold.

In terms of sourcing, the DMCC maintains a set of regulations for risk-based due diligence for every refinery, setting out strict rules on how it sources, pays for, transports, records and stores the gold processes.

Other refineries close to Dubai

If you are looking for a wider range of accredited refineries then you will need to look beyond Dubai.

The only other DGD-accredited refinery in the Middle East is International Precious Metals Refiners (IPMR), which has its refinery in nearby Sharjah.

The IPMR refinery is close to Sharjah’s airport and produces around 300 tonnes of gold each year. It can process material from mines, as well as industrial scrap, jewellery and electronics.

No other Middle Eastern refineries have either DGD accreditation, or a listing on the equally prestigious Good Delivery list run by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA).

Overall, it makes sense to use refineries accredited by the DGD and LBMA because you will have peace of mind that they are reputable and high quality in their output.

Emirates Gold and Al Etihad are the only Dubai gold refineries that make these lists, but make sure you check regularly. The DGD requires annual renewal of membership, and the LBMA reviews its members every three years.

Marcus Briggs is an entrepreneur and non-executive director of Icon Gold and vice-president of Citi Group. He specialises in identifying and developing opportunities in the gold bullion markets of the Middle East and Africa. Read more at his blog https://www.marcus-briggs.com/