NTR Metals

The United States is home to a vast array of private minting operations. Some are relatively young and serve smaller niches within the precious metals industry. For example, some private mints specialize only in silver bar production, focus intently on striking beautiful silver rounds, or solely produce silver and gold bars in cast or minted ingot forms.

NTR Metals is an example of a private American mint, which like many others offers a variety of styles and affordable pricing of precious metal products. Private mints often produce precious metals with the greatest level of variety, and lower premiums over the spot price of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Learn more about this mint below.

Background on NTR Metals

Known simply as NTR Metals, the Northern Texas Refinery is one of the largest metal refineries in the world. They are based in Dallas, Texas, but they ship silver bars almost anywhere. They offer a full range of services including industrial recycling, bullion minting, and commercial refining. NTR Metals has 75 locations around the world with a recurring client base of 30,000 companies — everything from large corporations to small businesses. However, NTR Metals is not open to the public.

In addition to its refining operation, which handles more than 30 million pounds of metal each year, the Dallas-based company provides recycling, minting, and other refining services to thousands of business around the world. Its products all contain a minimum of .9999 pure gold or .999 pure silver content. NTR Metals stands behind its products and ensures the highest quality during shipping by using RF heat sealing and PVC casing to protect gold and silver bars from physical damage and oxidation. NTR Metals bars are sold in individual cases or sheets of 10 sealed bars.

NTR Metals Products

NTR has long focused on the production of minted ingots in its lineup of silver and gold bars. The production of silver minted ingots is largely where NTR has focused its efforts in recent years. For those who are unfamiliar, minted ingots are produced by refiners in a process that starts with the production of long, flat cast bars to serve as the blanks upon which minted ingots will eventually be formed. Traditionally this was done by creating a long mold that was used in the production of cast bars. These molds made it possible to create cast blanks with the precise width, thickness, and length required to make minted ingots.

To speed up the process, modern refiners will often use a continuous casting process instead. This produces bar stock of the required width and thickness on a continuous basis that is then fed into a continuous casting machine. Throughout a very complex process, the cast blanks are melted under induction heating or resistance heating to form minted ingot shapes that match exact specifications.

The new bars are then broken down in a rolling mill to reduce the larger batches down to the required thickness, and an interstage annealing process occurs that recrystallizes the grain structure of the metals and improves the surface finish of the bar. The rolling mill, combined with a strip annealing furnace help refine the bars to their required thickness. Further exposure to a gauging mill refines the bars even more, before they are eventually sent to the blanking press where each individual bar is punched out of the strip to prepare for striking process, at which point mint marks and designs are added to the finished product.

Purchasing Products Online at Silver.com

When you decide to purchase silver and gold precious metals online at Silver.com, you may pay for your products a number of ways. Silver.com accepts Visa and MasterCard credit/debit cards, paper checks, bank wire transfers, and Pay Pal transfers. For the fastest processing and fulfillment of your order, we recommend the use of bank wire and Pay Pal transfers. Paper checks offer the benefit of higher maximum purchase amounts, but do take up to six business days to process. Credit/debit transactions often process within one business day.

Those paying by paper check or bank wire transfer save 4% on the purchase price compared to the transaction fees of other payment methods. All Silver.com shipments are packaged in discreet boxes and delivered either by the US Postal Service or UPS. Silver.com uses a tiered scale for shipping costs based upon the total purchase price of your goods. If you spend more than $3,000, your products ship for free with free insurance.

In the event that your products are lost, stolen, or damaged during shipping, Silver.com will file an insurance claim on your behalf to try and refund your money. If possible, we’ll also work with the carrier to try and locate lost packages.

If you have any questions, we encourage you to reach out to a Silver.com associate for help. You can connect with us on the phone at 888-989-7223, online using our website’s live hosted chat feature, or via email.