Golden story: Next time you buy gold in Dubai
Carefully look out for fineness marks, usually embedded on the piece
Dubai: The next time you are looking to buy gold jewellery in Dubai — look out for fineness marks. They are usually embedded in some part of the jewellery piece and can be tiny.
If you cannot see the number edged on the piece, ask for a magnifying glass to clearly see the number embedded on the piece. It's a quality marker; if it's on the piece you are buying, you can be sure it's the genuine article.
X-ray machine
The discrepancy can only be found out by Dubai Municipality inspectors who collect samples of doubtful pieces to test it in their laboratory.
Their X-Ray machine can detect the discrepancy within minutes.
The machine, a Fischerscope X-Ray HDV, is among the latest test tool the world's gold industry uses. "It can detect 24 elements at a time,” explained Aisha Rashed Al Mazrooei, head of Gemstone and Precious Metal Labs Unit at DCL.
“In case the gold inspector asks for a complete detailed analysis of the piece, there is a process involved to determine the purity of gold,” she explained.
But more on that later.
A gold inspector's daily schedule: Meet the inspector
Typically every morning, the gold inspectors at Dubai Municipality are given a schedule of inspection, algorithmically generated at random.
“We log into our system and check the schedule for the day,” explained Maryam Mohammad Al Hammadi, Principal Products Quality Inspector at the DCL in Karama.
Maryam is the first woman inspector at Dubai Municipality who has been working in the civic body for 19 years. Her day starts early, around 7.30am.
By 10am, she hits the stories according to pre-set schecule — with a list that's randomly generated every morning (she doesn't know which stores she will be inspecting on any given day). Then she picks samples, which the store manager drops in bubble wrap envelopes. The samples collected are then sent the lab for purity testing.
Maintaining secrecy
The envelope has a sticker on it with DCL-assigned details, including the jewellery store number. Note here that the name of the jewellery store is not written on this envelope.
The envelop is handed over to the testing department.
“We maintain secrecy and the name of the jewellery store we visit during the day is not revealed to the testing department. They only receive sort of 'blind' samples from us and conduct the due test.”
Inspection details
The label (stuck on the envelope) also gives details such as date of the sample received, description of the piece, the claimed or stated carat fineness, and weight of the piece and weight of the piece after sampling.
Once the sample is collected, the envelope is sealed and signed by the inspector and the store in-charge or manager.
If the inspector is sure of the purity of the gold, he or she only asks for a basic sampling test to be done by the testing department. If there are concerns then the sample is sent for complete testing.
“The inspectors don’t take the responsibility of carrying the jewellery with us. We have to visit a number of stores in a day and it is not practical to carry the envelopes with us. The jewellery maker delivers it to DCL themselves,” explained Ismail, adding plan is towards a safe and secure system to pick up the gold samples from jewellery stores and have them delivered to DLC.
The inspectors don’t take the responsibility of carrying the jewellery with us. We have to visit a number of stores in a day and it is not practical to carry the envelopes with us. The jewellery maker delivers it to DCL themselves.
Why is the sample taken?
“To test the conformity of the product. Some retailers are buying from wholesalers or importing them from other countries, we need to ensure the quality and purity is maintained,” explained Maryam.
Fines for violators
This rarely happens, as Dubai's gold jewellery manufacturers get the rules, and don't want to be exposed to the ignominy of peddling substandard items.
“We don’t want to be hard on jewellery retailers. So we talk to them first. If they violate the rule second time around – we send the case to an internal committee set up within Dubai Municipality.
"It the jeweler violates rules for the third consecutive time, we send the case to a federal committee. This is very rare. Most retailers in the market understand the rules and regulations and follow it well. We have not been in a situation where we have had to escalate the matter very high with respect to any jewellery maker in Dubai,” explained Almass.
How DCL inspectors deal with gold-related issues
“Once a customer came to Dubai Municipality with a complaint. His wife had bought six gold bangles from a shop in Dubai. Now the issue was that his wife liked a particular design of bangles, but the retailer did not have her size. She settled for a smaller size, but later changed her mind.
"She told her husband to get them exchanged. But that is not possible without an extra charge. Now the reason is because we don’t take a sold jewellery piece back as it is a strict rule from our end that no used jewellery must be sold to customers.
"It can be damaged or scratched and we cannot resell that to a customer. Now the jeweler is ready to take a jewellery back but for a price. This is because the jeweler has to melt the piece and make a new piece out of it. And there is a charge for this.”
“The issue with this man was that he did not want to pay the extra charge. The retailer was asking for Dh3,000 and the husband refused to pay this. So he negotiated hard but to no avail. In the end he came to Dubai Municipality for help. We mediated and brought the charge down to Dh500. She sent me an email and I asked the shop which sold her the bracelet to respond."
"A western expat bought a 22 carat bracelet from here. She returned home and got the gold cheque for its carat and purity. Now the jeweller said it was not 22 carat, but 21 carat.
She sent me an email and I asked the shop which sold her the bracelet to respond.
"Now, it turned out there was an error in the fineness marking and it was indeed 21 carat not 22 carat. So what did we do? We asked her to return the gold piece and gave her money back in full.
"That is the kind of reputation we want to maintain in the UAE. There are no compromises when it comes to serving the customer in the best possible manner,” said Almass.
Inside the testing department
There are two kinds of tests done here at the DCL. The first is basic — to check the fineness mark of a jewellery piece against the actual caratage of the gold.
The piece is placed inside an advanced X-ray machine that scans the product and gives details of the purity of gold of that piece.
The machine, a Fischerscope X-Ray HDV, is among the latest test tool the world's gold industry uses. "It can detect 24 elements at a time,” explained Aisha Rashed Al Mazrooei, head of Gemstone and Precious Metal Labs Unit at DCL.
“In case the gold inspector asks for a complete detailed analysis of the piece, there is a process involved to determine the purity of gold,” she explained.
Testing the samples
“The sample taken is first measured for its weight. It is air brushed to remove any impurities that maybe sticking to the gold piece. Our precious metal analyst cuts a little piece of the jewellery. This is then put into the special X-Ray machine once again to get the purity details.
The piece is then melted in a furnace. An alloy mixture of gold and silver is then added to the melted gold. The new mix is wrapped inside a lead foil and put inside a furnace to make a new mixture.
"The purpose of this is to extract the gold from the piece. As you know, any jewellery piece has gold and silver mixed inside. But in order to test the purity of the gold in the piece, it is important to remove the silver from the piece.
"The way to do it is to add more silver to the mix. Again, the reason why we do this is because in the current composition of the piece, there is very little silver added and it is difficult to extract that in such a process.
"By adding more silver to the composition there is a more amount of silver to remove. So at the end of the process – we are left totally with only the gold.
"The gold from such a test is usually of 24 carat value and is returned to the jewellery maker. “We don’t keep anything with us,” explained Aisha.