Sourcing precious-metal ores from China

Duty and waste controls

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 18 November 2026, heading 2616 covers precious-metal ores and concentrates. Silver, gold and other precious-metal lines all carry 0% duty for goods from China. The supplied tariff records show no anti-dumping or countervailing duty and no suspensions. Silver ore and concentrate share a commodity code, so the table separates their buying descriptions.

The tariff attaches import waste controls and also records export waste controls. For a proposed shipment from China, ask your customs broker to confirm whether the material is waste and which requirements apply. For notified waste entering England, shipment cannot proceed until the destination, dispatch and transit authorities have consented. Confirm the applicable procedure before loading; the export entry also needs checking if you plan to re-export material.

Give your broker the mineral composition, assay, processing history and intended use to confirm the commodity code. Ask the relevant authority or your customs broker to confirm whether the natural ores and concentrates qualify for a UK REACH registration exemption. Ask the supplier to document the processing history before relying on any exemption.

Specify assay and dry-weight settlement

Specify the payable precious metals, their assay basis, moisture, particle size and limits for arsenic, mercury, lead and other impurities relevant to the receiving refinery. Ask the refinery to approve the specification before placing the order.

Agree representative sampling, sample preparation, an independent laboratory and a retained sealed sample for disputes. State whether settlement uses dry weight, how moisture is measured and how conflicting assays are resolved. Use factory verification to check the processor and its batch records.

Worked duty example

Illustrative example, not a quote: Illustrative order: 100 tonnes of silver ore in bulk bags under 2616 10 00 00, invoiced at £40,000 free on board, with £6,000 of freight and insurance to the UK. The customs value is £46,000. Duty at 0% is £0. Import VAT at 20% is charged on the customs value plus duty, £46,000, so it is £9,200. With no duty, the only import tax is the VAT, which a VAT-registered importer can usually reclaim. The import duty and VAT guide explains each step.

Inspection checklist

Assay: compare independently sampled material with the contracted metal content and impurity limits.

Weight and moisture: reconcile arrival weights with dispatch records and measure moisture before calculating dry weight.

Traceability: match bag labels, seals, assay reports and processing records to the delivered lot.

Packing: check liners, closures, leakage, wet patches and contamination between lots. Plan checks using the quality inspection guide.

What goes wrong

A supplier's selected sample may overstate the grade of the shipment. Uneven blending, substituted lots and sampling only the surface can hide variation. Excess moisture also increases the shipped weight without adding payable metal.

An acceptable headline assay can conceal impurities that the receiving refinery will reject or penalise. Agree the refinery's acceptance criteria, sample the actual lot and resolve waste-control questions before dispatch.

Cambridge China Bridge sources these products for UK businesses, checking the factory and the documents before shipment. See factory verification. For repeat volumes, see container programmes.