Gold doré bars: what they are and how refiners value them

What gold doré is

LBMA, the London bullion market's industry association, defines gold doré as a bar of newly mined gold alloy, produced by processing ore and smelting it at the mine, normally of 85–90% purity. Fully refined gold is 99.5% or better. What else a doré bar contains varies greatly with the ore and the processing plant; LBMA gives the example of most South African mines, where doré contains around 10% silver and minor amounts of base metals.

Doré is an ordinary, large-scale trade product. The US Geological Survey counts it as its own trade category: in 2021 the United States exported 52,600 kg of gold doré, 74% of it to Switzerland. Its gold content varies by mine; one technical report filed by a mining company bases its payable terms on doré of more than 50% gold, and another describes doré bars of about 15–30 kg each.

How refiners value a doré bar

No major refiner publishes its current doré terms. The best public evidence is refining agreements and technical reports that mining companies have filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The two full contracts we read describe this sequence; the technical reports give only the rates and charges.

1. Melt and weigh. The refiner melts the bars. The weight that counts is the weight after melting, not the weight on the shipping papers.
2. Sample. A sample is taken from the melt and split into sealed parts for the producer, the refiner, an umpire and a reserve.
3. Assay. Both sides assay by corrected fire assay. If their results are within an agreed limit (0.5 parts per thousand for gold in one contract), the average is final. If not, an independent umpire laboratory decides; one contract says the umpire “shall not be the representative of either party”.
4. Credit an agreed share of the gold. The contracts credited the mine with 99.85% to 99.95% of the gold measured, and 97% to 98% of the silver.
5. Charge, and sell if asked. The refiner charges per ounce and per shipment. The credited gold is returned as metal or, if the mine asks, bought at the London gold price (the London fixing, in these contracts). Today the LBMA Gold Price is set twice a day in auctions run by ICE Benchmark Administration.
6. Settle. Settlement is often provisional first, then adjusted when final weights and assays are agreed; in one contract the credit came 15 days after sampling.

These are dated terms between mines and refiners. They are not today's rates, and they are not what a trader would pay an individual.

A worked example

This is an illustration, not a price. A 1 kg doré bar that assays at 88% gold contains 32.15 × 0.88 = 28.29 troy ounces of fine gold. At a 99.85% payable rate, the refiner credits 28.25 ounces. A charge of US$0.60 per ounce of doré, as in the 2003 contract, comes to about US$19 for the whole bar.

Fixed costs matter more for a small lot: one set of filed terms has a minimum charge of US$1,000 per shipment, and another puts transport, security and insurance at US$3,050 per shipment. For a mine shipping in bulk, the deductions are still a small fraction of the value of the gold.

Why a deep discount is a warning sign

Because a mine can sell doré to a refiner for close to the value of its gold, an honest holder has no ordinary commercial reason to sell far below that value. That is our inference from the contracts above. Ugandan police said in 2025 that scammers had offered a kilo at about US$40,000 when the market price was US$100,000 to 120,000.

A small discount does not prove an offer is honest either. The Financial Action Task Force describes a suspected fraud pitched as “a major gold deal” at 4% below the London Gold Fix, where the warning signs were a seller bank that was never named and intermediaries that did not appear to be licensed.

We found no credible source for a “normal” discount on doré bought from a trader, so we do not give one. To test an offer, convert the weight to troy ounces, multiply by the stated gold fraction, and compare the result with the LBMA Gold Price. See the price check in our scams guide.

Can doré legally leave Uganda?

Whether Uganda permits doré exports is unresolved. The Act sets no purity figure and leaves purity to regulations (section 130(b)); the ministry's 99.9% rule is reported, and the text of the 2024 regulation has not been read.

Uganda's Mining and Minerals Act 2022 requires an export permit for every export of minerals (section 150 of the assented text; section 149 in an earlier circulated version). A permit does not exempt the exporter from other requirements, which the Act says include proof of fees and royalties, a certificate of origin where applicable, and a certificate of analysis authenticated by the country of origin. The Act itself sets no purity threshold for gold exports.

According to press reports of its guidelines, Uganda's mines ministry has said since December 2024 that exporters need proof that the gold has been refined to a purity of 99.9%. Press reports also describe regulations made in 2024 that ban the export of unrefined gold. We have not been able to read their text, and one report describes a levy on unrefined gold instead of a ban. We found no exemption for doré.

So an offer to export unrefined “Ugandan doré” to a foreign buyer does not match the export route the ministry describes. Ask for the export permit before anything else: see the export permit check. For how much gold Uganda actually mines, see production and exports.

Who may import doré where you are

India. According to a published reproduction of the government notification, doré is imported by refineries under an import licence with an actual-user condition.

Switzerland. Melting precious metals into melt products, and testing their fineness, are licensed activities under Swiss precious-metals control.

United Arab Emirates. Gold supply-chain businesses must run OECD-style due diligence, and refiners must also be independently audited. We found no import rule specific to doré.

For sanctions and the wider rules in destination markets, see buying gold from Africa.

What a genuine doré assay looks like

In the contracts above, the assay is made on a sample taken from the melt at the refinery, split into sealed parts and assayed by both sides by corrected fire assay, with an independent umpire if the results differ. LBMA says most gold in the refined range can only be assayed accurately by corrected fire assay.

A certificate from a laboratory chosen by the seller, on a sample you did not see taken, proves little. In cases reported in Uganda, buyers were shown gold that passed initial laboratory tests, and the gold was later swapped or disappeared. See the testing check in our scams guide.