How Fidelity Gold Refinery Gold Prices Work, Tier by Tier

On 8 October 2026, Zimbabwe’s only legal gold buyer posted two very different prices for the same metal: US$125.31 per gram at the top of its schedule and US$118.71 per gram at the bottom. That gap of about US$6.60 per gram works out to roughly US$205 per troy ounce. A refinery does not pay one price for “gold”. It pays several, and the one you get depends on what you bring through the door.

The buyer is Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR), the sole licensed purchaser of gold mined in Zimbabwe. Every legally sold ounce passes through its schedule. That makes FGR’s daily prices the realised price for miners.

They are also the reference point for anyone modelling the economics of Zimbabwe’s gold sector. If you are working out what a Zimbabwean mine actually earns, the international spot price is only the starting figure.

Here is how to read Fidelity Gold Refinery gold prices line by line. You will learn to estimate what a given parcel would earn and to judge how far those realised prices sit from international benchmarks.

What does the 8 October 2026 buying schedule actually say?

Start with the numbers. These are the six tiers in today’s schedule, as reported by Mining Zimbabwe, which publishes FGR’s prices daily or near-daily.

Read down the US$/g column and a pattern appears. From the top SG band to the bottom one, each step costs you exactly US$1.32 per gram. The schedule behaves like a ladder with evenly spaced rungs.

Then the bottom rung breaks the rhythm. The drop from the SG 75% band to the sample tier is US$1.98 per gram, half as wide again as the steps above it.

A few things stand out:

• The top-to-bottom spread is about US$6.60/g, or about US$205/oz.
• SG bands step down by roughly US$1.30-1.40/g, while the final step to the sample tier is wider.
• A sixth category, Fire Assay Transfer, carries a sample deduction of up to 10 g, but no separate per-gram price for it appeared in the sources.

What this tells you is that the headline “gold price” in Zimbabwe is really a range. On any given day, the tier your parcel lands in can matter as much to your revenue as the move in the global market. The obvious next question is why the ladder exists at all.

How do purity tiers, assay and sample deductions set the price?

The signal is simple: a lower band means a lower price. The reasons behind each step come down to one thing, which is how confident FGR can be about what is in your parcel.

Fire assay is a laboratory method that melts a gold sample and separates out the precious metal to measure its purity precisely. FGR carries it out at its Harare head office. Because the result is exact, fire-assayed gold earns the top price.

Miners with larger operations often deliver gold doré bars rather than loose parcels, and the silver and base-metal content in those bars is exactly what fire assay is designed to measure before payment is calculated.

For a miner, the process runs in a set order:

1. You deliver gold to an FGR buying centre, in cities including Harare, Bulawayo, Kadoma, Kwekwe and Mutare, many located in ZB Bank branches.
2. The parcel is weighed and graded, either by specific gravity in the field or sent for fire assay.
3. Fire assay is completed at the Harare head office.
4. You are paid once the assay results are available.

Purity and SG bands

Specific gravity (SG) is the density of a material compared with the density of water. Gold is very dense, so a higher SG reading points to purer gold. It is a field proxy, which means it estimates purity rather than measuring it directly.

FGR groups SG readings into bands: 90% and above, 85% to under 90%, 80% to under 85%, and 75% to under 80%. Each band sits one rung lower on the ladder.

The discount grows as the reading falls because the uncertainty grows with it. A density estimate cannot tell FGR exactly how much gold is in a lump of lower-grade material, so the refinery prices in that doubt. On 28 September, moving from SG 90%+ at US$126.83/g down to SG 75-79.99% at US$122.81/g cost you about US$4.02 per gram.

DiscoveryAlert’s analysis of the 18 September schedule put the full top-to-bottom spread at US$216.79/oz and drew the practical conclusion:

Margin callout The spread “makes purity and parcel size a direct margin decision” for producers, according to DiscoveryAlert.

Parcel size and sample deductions

Size is the second gate. Fire Assay Cash applies only to parcels over 100 g with no sample deduction. Under Fire Assay Transfer, up to 10 g can be taken as a sample.

That is why a small parcel cannot reach the top tier. If you bring a few dozen grams, a 10 g sample is a large slice of your delivery, and your gold falls into lower-priced categories by default.

None of this points to a dispute. The research found no documented assay disputes or sampling complaints involving FGR between 2024 and 2026. The point is structural: for a small-scale miner, better processing and pooling output into larger parcels are financial decisions, not just operational ones.

How do per-gram prices convert to ounces, and how far below spot do they sit?

International gold is quoted per troy ounce, while FGR quotes per gram. To compare them, you need one conversion, and it is easy to repeat yourself.

• One troy ounce equals 31.1035 grams.
• Multiply the FGR per-gram price by 31.1035.
• Using today’s top tier: US$125.31 x 31.1035 ≈ US$3,897.58/oz.

With that figure in hand, you can line FGR up against any spot quote on the same basis. The gap is deliberate. FGR pays below spot to cover refining, handling, risk and operating costs.

Since February 2026, FGR has used live market spot prices for purchases and settlements, replacing the prior day’s closing price. According to Mining Zimbabwe, the base value is set from a live morning benchmark before refinery premiums and costs are applied.

So how big is the discount? DiscoveryAlert found the Fire Assay Cash tier on 18 September, at US$132.36/g (US$4,116.86/oz), sat roughly 5.3% below global spot. In other words, the best-paid parcels earned about 94.7% of the international price.

Across the September and October schedules, top-tier discounts ran broadly 3-6% below benchmark. The gap widens as you move down the ladder.

The direction is clear: the top rate has fallen by about US$7 per gram in three weeks, tracking international benchmarks lower. One caveat applies. Exact LBMA quotes matched to the 28 September and 8 October schedules were not found, so any discount you calculate for today is indicative rather than confirmed.

The practical read is that your true cost against spot is two numbers stacked together. First comes the headline discount at the top tier, then the tier penalty for wherever your parcel actually lands.

For readers wanting to see where the discount to spot comes from, our deep-dive into what the refining process costs breaks down the stages that turn rough doré into 99.99% gold.

What risks sit between the schedule price and what a miner actually receives?

The published price is best treated as a ceiling. What a miner banks depends on several factors that sit between delivery and payment.

• Assay timing: payment waits for fire assay in Harare, so you carry time risk between handing over gold and receiving cash.
• Sample loss: deductions of up to 10 g can take a large share of a small producer’s output and rule out the top tier.
• Volatility: under live spot pricing, global price swings pass straight through to the daily schedule, with no prior-day buffer.
• Policy and currency: the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has reportedly been accumulating gold since late 2022, with miners paying half of royalties in metal, and a reported US$300 million cap on central-bank buying in 2026. Both claims are unverified, but changes to either could shift liquidity and incentives.

Policy shifts such as RBZ accumulation sit within a broader African push to formalise supply chains and capture more value domestically, a pattern that shapes how channels compete for gold deliveries.

The live pricing change was described by observers as aimed at attracting more deliveries to FGR. That framing hints at competition from other channels, yet the evidence on that competition is thin.

Evidence gap No sourced, quantified comparison of FGR realised prices against informal or smuggled channels was found, including side-selling volumes, payment delays or currency risk.

Other blanks matter too. The split between US dollars and ZiG, Zimbabwe’s gold-backed currency, in FGR settlements was not found, and neither were current statutory royalty rates.

For your own estimate, start with the schedule and then subtract. Apply deductions for tier, sample, timing and policy before drawing conclusions about Zimbabwean gold economics, and treat any model without those adjustments with caution.

Reading the schedule with the right expectations

Three ideas carry you through any FGR schedule. The prices form a ladder. Your rung is set by purity evidence and parcel size. Realised value is the benchmark discount plus the tier penalty, before timing and policy are counted.

When the next daily schedule appears, check three things: whether the tier spread has widened or narrowed, how Fire Assay Cash compares with spot on a per-ounce basis, and whether the gap to the sample tier has changed.

Prices have already slipped from mid-September levels. Under live spot pricing, they can be expected to keep following global gold in both directions.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with financial professionals before making investment decisions. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Financial projections are subject to market conditions and various risk factors.