Guidelines for Gold Assaying and Hallmarking Centres

Central Pollution Control Board

(Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Govt of India)
Parivesh Bhawan, East Arjun Nagar
Delhi-110032

(October 2020)

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Environmental Guidelines for Gold Assaying and Hallmarking
Centres
Background:

An Original application (OA) No. 568/2019, James Jose, Managing Director, CGR
Hall markers Pvt. Ltd. vs Govt. of India was filed in the Hon’ble NGT highlighting the
air pollution caused by acidic fumes in gold hallmarking centres from the process of
Gold Assaying and Hallmarking without complying the pollution control norms.
Hon’ble NGT vide its order dated 18.11.2019 directed CPCB to “update the existing
guidelines in the matter so that environmental norms are met in the process”. There
is no existing environmental guidelines prepared by CPCB for Gold Hallmarking
Centres. These Hallmarking centres are BIS certified under the provision of Indian
standard IS 15820:2009.

In compliance of Hon’ble NGT order, CPCB has framed Environmental Guidelines to

bring such facilities into the environmental regulatory framework.

2.0 Hallmarking:

The BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) Hallmark is a certifying mechanism to certify

the purity of precious metals jewellery viz. gold and silver, sold in India. The testing
and marking of the jewellery is done in BIS certified Assaying & Hallmarking centres
across the country. BIS has framed & published the “Guideline
(HM/A&HC/Guidelines/2, September,2018)” for recognition and operation of
hallmarking centres. BIS guidelines stipulate the procedures for grant, operation,
renewal, suspension and cancellation of recognition of Assaying and Hallmarking (A
&H) Centers. Indian standard IS 15820:2009 is the basis for recognition of assaying
and hallmarking centers, which specifies a Fire Assay test for Assay and Hallmarking
of gold, following the procedure prescribed in the method IS 1418: 2009 (Assaying of
Gold in Gold Bullion, Gold alloys and Gold Jewelry/Artefacts: Cupellation- Fire Assay
Method.)

There are 923 recognized Gold Assaying and Hallmarking facilities in India. Highest
number of such facilities is in Southern region (312 Nos), followed by Western
Region (203 Nos), Eastern Region (181) Central Region (133) and Northern Region
(94).
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3.0 Gold Assaying Process:

Hallmarking of jewellery/artefact is done in BIS certified facilities/centres, which acts

as testing laboratories. These hallmarking facilities/centres/labs are located inside
city areas or in busy commercial or business complexes nearby the jewellery
manufacturing hub/markets.

Assaying is the technical term used for the quantitative chemical analysis of precious
metals. In context of Gold Jewellery, assaying means determination of gold in the
jewellery/article. The steps involved in Gold Assaying process are as follows:

i. Reception Section: The process starts from reception. Jewelry are received
from different parties i.e. jewelers and are sorted as per their purity claimed by
the party and after acceptance, the jwellery are sent for Assaying.
ii. X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) Section: After receiving the jewellery sample, the
fineness (purity as declared by customer) of the samples are verified by the
XRF machine by comparing with the reference material.
iii. Melting Section: The accepted samples (Jwellery/artefacts) are cut/drilled in
the defined quantity as per BIS guidelines and these drilled/cut piece of
sample is then homogenised in melting furnace in graphite crucibles.
iv. Sample preparation: The homogenized sample is weighed and other metals
i..e. silver and copper is mixed with the homogenised sample and put in lead
foil, which is then assayed . Out of several techniques available for assaying
precious metals, Fire Assaying is one of the oldest and most reliable methods
for the quantitative analysis of gold and silver.
v. Assaying section (Fire Assay Test):
As per the standard IS 15820:2009, Assay and Hallmarking of gold is done by
the fire assay test as per the method IS 1418: 2009 (Assaying of Gold in Gold
Bullion, Gold alloys and Gold Jewelry/Artefacts). In this test, magnesia or
calcium phosphate cupels, parting acids (Nitric acids of specific gravity 1.2 &
1.3 g/cm3), lead foil, precious metals (silver) and other metals like copper are
used. The fire assay method is based on the principle of removal of all base
metals like lead, copper, etc, present in the sample from noble metals like
gold and silver through the process of cupellation and Parting.

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 Cupellation. In this process samples are kept in cupels for cupellation inside
the muffle furnace for 25 min at 1100oC. During the process, lead is oxidised
into lead oxide & emitted in the form of fumes, whereas other impurities along-
with lead is absorbed in cupels.

Parting: Once cupellation is completed, a gold and silver alloy in the form of
bead is obtained. Separating silver from gold by selectively dissolving silver-
gold alloy in Nitric acid, is known as parting.

4.0 Sources of Environmental pollution associated with Fire Assay Procedure

and Environmental issues of Hallmarking Centres:

Main sources of pollution in Fire Assay Testing and other environmental issues
associated with hallmarking centres are as under:

a) Air Pollution:
Lead oxides and Nitrous fumes are generated during cupellation and parting
acid treatment respectively. These fumes, if inhaled may pose a health hazard
to personals/workers involved in assaying, if not addressed properly.

To control the emissions, fume extraction system is installed and the fumes
generated are sucked through suction hood and exhausted fumes are
scrubbed by sprinkling of water. The scrubbed water is collected and the
recirculate back in the process.

b) Water Pollution
As such there is no usage of water in the process, however the scrubbed water
is generated from scrubbing operations during fume extractions. Though the
scrubbed water is recycled and recirculated in the process, but over a period of
time it is discharged which contain lead as contaminant.
.
c) Hazardous waste:
During the process of cupellation, Cupels become contaminated due to the
absorption of lead and other heavy metals. Used/Spent cupels bearing lead

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 and scrubbed water containing residues of lead are the hazardous wastes
generated during fire assay posing risk to the environment.

The spent acids generated during parting process are also hazardous waste
generated in the fire assay test. The parting process involves boiling of a metal
mixture (Gold & Silver) with parting acid (Conc. Nitric acid) to remove the silver.
In this process silver present in the metal gets dissolved with nitric acid leaving
only gold in its purest form. After recovering dissolved silver from acid, the
spent parting acid (Conc nitric acid) is generated which is highly acidic and may
adversely affect the receiving environment, if discharged without proper
neutralization and treatment. The quantity of nitric acid used in the process is
approximately 0.5 litres/assaying and on average daily spent acid generation is
1.0 lit/day. Spent acid has pH about 2.0. Spent acid generated is collected in
the small container (20-25 littres) to recover silver.

5.0 Environmental Guidelines:

Environmental Guidelines for “Environmental Guidelines for Gold Assaying and

Hallmarking Centres”

1. The emissions from cupellation and parting process should be channelized

through a well-designed suction hood and duct arrangement system to control
lead and nitric acid fumes.

2. The extracted fumes from cupellation and parting should be scrubbed by

installing well designed scrubbing system for removing the pollutants from the
exhausted air & discharged through appropriate stack as per SPCBs consent
conditions.

3. The adequacy/efficiency of the Scrubber system installed need to be verified by

the SPCBs or through Expert institutions.

4. The spent acid generated from parting acid should be sent to TSDF or
neutralized before its disposal. These Hallmarking centres should have facilities
of pH testing like litmus paper, pH meter to check that the spent acid is
neutralized.

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 5. The Spent cupels/scrubbed water containing lead should be sent to TSDF or to
the authorized registered lead recyclers dealers.

6. Manifest/records should be maintained for storage and disposal of spent

acid/cupels/scrubbed water residue generated during the process.

7. Proper personal protection equipment’s such as Face Shields, Helmets, Acid

Gloves, First Aid Box, etc. must be used by the personals carrying out fire assay
& parting test.

8. Good housekeeping should be maintained by frequent and regular cleaning of the

assay lab, preventing lead dust from accumulating on laboratory surfaces.

9. All the gold assaying and hallmarking centers shall obtain necessary Consents
under the provisions of Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 &
Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 & Hazardous and Other Wastes
(Management & Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016 from the concerned State
Pollution Control Boards / Pollution Control Committees.

10. The Gold Hallmarking Assaying facilities/Centres should be established as per the
siting policies/guidelines of local administration.

11. The Blood test of worker for lead, should be done once in a year who has worked
for at least 6 months in such facility.

12. BIS may explore new alternate instrumental methods like Spark or Arc OES with
low pollution foot print for assaying of Gold.

13. BIS may also make mandatory to have a copy of consents issued by
SPCBs/PCCs under Water Act 1974 & Air Act 1981 and Authorization certificates
while issuing the BIS certificates.

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