assaying, in 

chemical analysis, process of determining proportions of metal,

particularly precious metal, in ores and metallurgical products. The most important
technique, still used today, grew largely out of the experiments of the ancient alchemists
and goldsmiths in seeking to find or create precious metals by subjecting base metals
and minerals to heat. More sophisticated methods, such as spectrographic analysis, are
not suited to assaying precious metal ores because of the large sample required;
precious metals tend to occur as scattered particles randomly distributed, so that a large
sample of the ore must be taken. Such large samples—typically containing gold, silver,
and lead—can be most economically assayed by the fire method, which usually consists
of six steps:

1. Sampling: a representative proportion is taken.

Britannica Quiz
 Science: Fact or Fiction?
2. Fusion: the sample is melted in a crucible with suitable fluxes and other agents so that
droplets of lead collect the precious metal and descend through the sample in the
crucible. The lead alloy is cooled to produce a metallic “button,” and the slag is
discarded.

Go Paperless With BPI!

Bea knows it’s easy to start being sustainable with BPI. Learn the small steps you can start
taking today, for a better tomorrow. #BPISustainableWithYou #ReadyTodayReadyTomorrow
#BeaForBPI
SPONSORED BY   BANK OF THE PHILIPPINE...

LEARN MORE

3. Cupellation: the button is melted in an oxidizing atmosphere in order to oxidize

impurities, including lead and other metals. The silver melts and dissolves the other
precious metals, forming a “bead” of silver, gold, and platinum metals sometimes
referred to as doré.

4. Weighing: the bead is weighed to determine the total of gold and silver (the platinum
metals are present in too little quantity to affect the measurement).

5. Parting: the bead is treated with hot dilute nitric acid to dissolve out the silver. If the
gold content of the bead is known to exceed 25 percent, its concentration is first reduced
by adding silver in a procedure known as inquartation.

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.Subscribe

Now
6. Weighing: the remnant of gold is weighed and subtracted from the gold-silver bead
weight to give the weight of silver.

If platinum, palladium, or rhodium are present, they dissolve in the molten lead and are
collected in the gold-silver bead after cupellation. Their concentration in the gold after
parting can be determined by arc spectrography. If iridium is present, it forms a black
deposit that clings to the doré bead. Osmium and ruthenium, on the other hand, are
largely lost during cupellation; if their presence is suspected, chemical methods instead
of fire analysis are used.

Fire-assaying methods are also used to determine easily reducible base metals such as
lead, bismuth, tin, antimony, and copper