Doré is gold as it leaves the mine: recovered from ore, melted and cast into a bar, but not refined. The word is French for “gilded”. In English it’s also called unrefined gold or a doré bar.
What it contains
A doré bar is mostly gold, with silver and small amounts of other metals such as copper. How much of it is gold varies from mine to mine and from bar to bar. That share is its fineness, given in parts per thousand: a bar at 900‰ is 90% gold.
Refining separates the gold from everything else and produces fine gold, typically 995‰ or 999.9‰, the standard for investment bars and coins.
Weight and gold content
A doré bar’s stamped weight is its gross weight: the whole bar. Its gold content is:
fine gold = gross weight × fineness ÷ 1000
So a 100 g bar at 900‰ holds 90 g of gold, or about 2.89 troy ounces. You can try your own figures in the gold calculator.
How it’s valued
The value of doré comes from the gold (and sometimes silver) it contains, measured by assay. A refinery that buys doré assays it itself, pays for the metal it measures, and deducts refining and other charges. That’s why doré is worth less than the same weight of refined gold.
Who buys it
Mainly refineries, which turn it into fine gold. Some private buyers want gold close to its source, with papers that trace it to a mine. Coin and bullion dealers that trade refined products may not buy doré.
Doré from Bargold
Bargold sells doré from one registered Colombian mining company, cast into stamped bars of 50 g and 100 g gross weight, each with its papers. Refineries can agree other lot sizes. Every buyer applies first.