A parcel of ore can look extraordinary and assay poorly, or look ordinary and assay well. Colour, weight in the hand and surface lustre are all useful field indicators, but none of them are the number a buyer actually pays against.
Fire assay, not eyeballing
For gold, that number comes from fire assay, the same method that has been the industry reference for centuries because it is difficult to fake and easy to audit. For base metals like lead and zinc, it comes from laboratory analysis reporting metal percentage alongside the penalty elements, iron and cadmium in zinc concentrate, that determine what a smelter will actually pay.
The cost of skipping it
A seller who prices on appearance instead of assay is either giving away value or setting themselves up for a dispute at the weighbridge. A buyer who accepts a parcel without an independent assay is buying blind. Neither outcome serves the sector’s move toward formalisation, and neither is how Inland Drills prices a single lot.
What this looks like in practice
Every parcel we handle, whatever the mineral, is sampled, assayed and disclosed before a price is agreed. That is not a courtesy. It is the only basis on which a trade can be trusted by both sides.