Metalor: PGM Refining, Products and Accreditation

Metalor is a Swiss precious metals refiner and a referee at both the LBMA and the LPPM, the two bodies that police the London bullion market's platinum and palladium standards, with Metalor Technologies SA and Metalor Precious Metals (Suzhou) Ltd both on the LPPM's platinum Good Delivery list as of 6 August 2026. The LPPM describes its own remit as overseeing the standards of platinum, palladium and rhodium worldwide, and referee status outranks plain Good Delivery listing on that remit, because referees run the assay testing that admits and polices every other name on the list. Metalor's refining capability, its full accreditation record, its ownership under Japan's TANAKA group and its product range sit alongside the wider set of platinum group metal refiners DailyPlatinum tracks, and follow below.

What Is Metalor?#

Metalor is a privately held Swiss precious metals group headquartered at Route des Perveuils 8 in Marin, Switzerland, with roughly 1,500 employees and a Japanese parent, TANAKA, according to Metalor's own company profile. The company organizes its business into three groups, listed below, and its own profile states that it handles seven metals across them without itemizing which seven.

• Mines & Recyclers: sourcing from mine concentrate and secondary, recycled material.
• Banks, Traders & Investment: bullion and investment products for financial customers.
• Industries: fabricated and chemical products for industrial buyers.

Metalor's founding date and any stock exchange listing are not established in DailyPlatinum's sources, so this profile covers only the ownership and structure a dated record supports.

Metalor's PGM Refining Capability#

Metalor refines platinum, palladium and rhodium, drawing feed from both primary mine concentrate and secondary scrap through its Mines & Recyclers business group. A refiner with full separation capability runs concentrate or scrap through smelting, converting and a precious metal refinery before splitting the platinum group metals into individual pure metals, and Metalor's Mines & Recyclers group performs that cycle on both mine-sourced and recycled feed. Refiners on the LPPM's Good Delivery lists, a group that includes Metalor, must certify at least 99.95% purity for platinum and palladium plate or ingot, the minimum the LPPM's Good Delivery Rules (June 2020 edition) sets for wholesale metal; that threshold is what refiners call 3N5 purity, no more than 500 parts per million of total impurities, the same floor ASTM sets in its B561 specification for Grade 99.95 refined platinum. Rhodium has no equivalent bar standard, so the LPPM instead runs a separate sponge accreditation that Metalor also holds.

Metalor's own product line adds fine chemical and pharmaceutical catalysts, electronics plating and assemblies alongside bullion, according to Metalor's company profile, so its refining output serves catalyst, electronics and investment-bar customers rather than mine concentrate alone.

Metalor and LPPM/LBMA Accreditation#

Metalor holds referee status at both the LBMA and the LPPM, the highest tier of London market accreditation, above the plain Good Delivery listing that most refiners hold, and it is also an LPPM Full Member and ISO 17034 accredited. LPPM Full Membership is a select tier: only 18 banks and refiner-fabricators hold it worldwide, and the list names Metalor alongside Johnson Matthey, Heraeus, BASF Metals, Sabin Metal, Valcambi and international banks such as Goldman Sachs International and UBS AG. Referees conduct the spectrographic assay testing that admits new refiners and polices existing ones under the LPPM's Good Delivery Rules (June 2020 edition): an applicant submits three sample plates, unnamed referees test them, and the applicant's own five-figure assay must agree with the referees' determination, at not less than 99.950% purity. Once listed, a refiner is proactively monitored on a rolling three-year cycle, assaying a sample that two independent referees verify, and passing requires agreement within 25 parts per million on each element and 100 parts per million in aggregate.

The Switzerland and China entities are accredited separately: Metalor Precious Metals (Suzhou) Ltd carries platinum Good Delivery status but not palladium, one of six entities the LPPM's palladium list excludes from its otherwise-identical platinum roster.

Ownership and Corporate Structure#

Metalor is a subsidiary of Japan's TANAKA group, which acquired Metalor Technologies International SA from the private equity firm Astorg; the exact completion date of that sale is not established in DailyPlatinum's sources. TANAKA traces to a company established in 1885 and reorganized twice since, first under TANAKA Holdings Co., Ltd. in 2010 and again on 1 January 2025 under the newly formed TANAKA PRECIOUS METAL GROUP CO., LTD., a restructuring TANAKA describes as aimed at improving productivity and clarifying each group company's function.

TANAKA's own refining arm, TANAKA PRECIOUS METAL TECHNOLOGIES Co., Ltd., holds its own separate LPPM Good Delivery listing for platinum and palladium and its own Full Member status. The LPPM lists Metalor and TANAKA's refining arm as two distinct accredited entities, not a combined one, so Metalor's referee status and accreditation record stand on their own rather than inherited from its parent.

Recent Corporate Changes#

Metalor has agreed to acquire Gannon & Scott, a North American precious metals refining and recovery services provider, according to Metalor's own site as accessed 6 August 2026. No purchase price or completion date is established in DailyPlatinum's sources. Gannon & Scott's addition sits inside Metalor's Mines & Recyclers business group, the same group that already sources primary concentrate and secondary scrap feed described above, so the deal extends an existing business line rather than opening a new one. The acquisition also follows TANAKA's own 1 January 2025 group reorganization under TANAKA PRECIOUS METAL GROUP CO., LTD., so Metalor's expansion into North American recovery services comes while its Japanese parent is itself mid-restructuring.

PGM Products and Commercial Forms#

Metalor supplies platinum group metals as sponge, Good Delivery plate and ingot, chemical salts and solutions, bullion and fabricated industrial forms. Metalor's own product competencies, listed below, cover both bullion customers and industrial buyers.

• Powders and flakes for fabrication.
• Electronics plating for industrial customers.
• Assemblies built from refined precious metal.
• Bullion and investment products through the Banks, Traders & Investment group.
• Fine chemical and pharmaceutical catalysts through the Industries group.

Every plate or ingot Metalor issues under Good Delivery rules must carry its own producer mark, an individual serial number of no more than 12 digits, the month and year of production, and a fineness stamp to four significant figures, per the LPPM's Good Delivery Rules (June 2020 edition). Those marking requirements are common to every Good Delivery refiner, not unique to Metalor, but they are what lets a buyer trace a Metalor-stamped bar back through the accreditation record above.

Where Metalor Coverage Stops on DailyPlatinum#

This page reports Metalor's refining capability, accreditation and ownership facts, not investment advice, share-price commentary or stock analysis, and DailyPlatinum does not track the share price of Metalor's parent group. Because Metalor's brand also anchors a bullion-dealer market for gold bars sold under its name, this page covers PGM refining only and does not authenticate, grade or value Metalor-branded gold bars.

Other Accredited PGM Refiners#

Metalor is one of several LPPM-accredited platinum group metal refiners DailyPlatinum tracks. Switzerland hosts four LPPM-accredited platinum refiners, Argor-Heraeus, Metalor, MKS PAMP and Valcambi, second only to Japan's nine. Other accredited refiners DailyPlatinum tracks include the names below.

• Johnson Matthey
• Heraeus
• Argor-Heraeus
• Valcambi
• Umicore
• TANAKA Precious Metal Technologies
• BASF Metals
• Sabin Metal Corporation

Frequently Asked Questions#

What does Metalor do? Metalor refines platinum, palladium and rhodium alongside gold and silver, producing sponge, Good Delivery plate, chemical salts, bullion and fabricated industrial forms across its Mines & Recyclers, Banks, Traders & Investment, and Industries business groups, as a subsidiary of Japan's TANAKA group.

Is Metalor a Swiss company? Metalor Technologies SA is headquartered in Marin, Switzerland, and holds its own LPPM referee and Good Delivery accreditation there, while a separate Metalor entity in Suzhou, China carries its own platinum Good Delivery listing. The group's parent, TANAKA, is Japanese, so Metalor operates as a Swiss-headquartered subsidiary with accredited entities in more than one country.

Who owns Metalor Refinery? TANAKA, a Japanese precious metals group, owns Metalor Technologies International SA, having acquired it from the private equity firm Astorg. TANAKA runs its own separate LPPM-accredited refining arm, TANAKA PRECIOUS METAL TECHNOLOGIES Co., Ltd., alongside Metalor, and the completion date of the Astorg sale is not established in DailyPlatinum's sources.

---