Jewelry, Watches & Precision Luxury Goods worked example

Precious Metal Yield at 65% target precious metal yield rate: a worked example

This worked example runs the precious metal yield numbers for a tougher week than the baseline: 65% target precious metal yield rate instead of the typical 90%. Calculate the percentage of precious metal (gold, silver, platinum, palladium) that ends up in finished jewelry pieces versus total metal charged into a casting, fabrication, or production run. Helps goldsmiths and production managers track material efficiency and identify where metal is lost to sprues, filings, polishing dust, or casting defects.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Finished metal weight recovered: 210 grams (held at the documented default)
  • Total precious metal charged: 250 grams (held at the documented default)
  • Target precious metal yield rate: 65 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 90)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Precious metal yield rate = finished metal weight ÷ total metal charged × 100.
  • Precious metal yield rate works out to 84 % at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Yield gap to target works out to -19 points at these inputs.
  • Finished metal weight works out to 210 count at these inputs.
  • Total metal charged works out to 250 count at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where target precious metal yield rate sits at 90% and the headline result is 84 %, this scenario lands almost exactly on the baseline at 84 %.
  • Use it per casting tree, batch, or shift to monitor how much charged precious metal converts to finished product versus reclaimable scrap. A result at this level usually justifies acting on the stressed input before touching anything else, because every other figure in the table is downstream of it.

Results at a glance

  • Precious metal yield rate: 84 % (headline result)
  • Yield gap to target: -19 points
  • Finished metal weight: 210 count
  • Total metal charged: 250 count

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Precious Metal Yield calculator, set target precious metal yield rate to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.