Meet the Maker:C. Hafner refinery

Gold. A word that has always been associated with a strong longing. A longing for a better life, for wealth, carefree and for beauty. A word that thirsts for adventure. For paths through rocks, for new life, for love.

There is a red house in Pforzheim. And if this were a fairy tale, there would be a magician living in this house, a magician who knew how to breathe life into things, to give them a second, third and fourth chance. Because the red house in Pforzheim is the refineryC Hafner. It belongs to the Hafner family and contains acids bubbling in glass flasks, so-called reactors. People wear goggles and face masks. Because there is something in the air here. Gold.

But this gold, which determines the everyday life of the workers, the chemists, the people, is a modern gold that only has the immortal shine in common with the old stories. Because it is gold that does not need to be re-mined, that has left the abominations of the mines behind and is instead being processed in harmony with the environment. This is where old gold becomes new gold.

How it works Very simply, says Dr. Michael Huber, chemist at ei C Hafner. And then, with sparkling eyes, he explains processes that are anything but easy. In the beginning is the scrap. This is what gold is called that has already had a life and has been processed with other materials. This includes gold and filing waste, scrap gold and disused dentures. And because gold has always been impressive because of its purity, the precious metal content of the scrap must first be determined. To do this, it is weighed and then melted down so that the precious metal is homogenized. That's what it's called when like joins like. In this case: gold to gold. From what withstands the fire test, ingots are cast, from which samples are taken and weighed for analysis. The samples are quartered with lead. The lead absorbs the precious metals in the crucible and then evaporates in the heat. What remains is the precious metal grain.

The grain is hammered and rolled and: divorced. In this way, the precious metal content of the sample can be determined. The customers of C Hafner are then remunerated based on the analysis of the purity of the gold. Only now does the actual separation process of separating or cutting the precious metals begin. The debris dissolves in aqua regia. And as if by magic, the various precious metals contained in the scrap are separated from one another and can be recovered in their pure form: palladium, platinum and, of course, gold. Of course, professionals like Michael Huber don't talk about magic. But that's just the way it is: For magicians, magic is a craft. dr Huber calls his magic: chemistry. At the end of the gold sheathing process is pure gold sponge. This is melted by Dr. Huber and his colleagues granulate it and the result is impressive: fine gold with 99.99 percent purity..

C. Hafner is a family business. And that since 1850. 170 years of family with around 240 employees how it works Mrs. Hafner says: We are not just a family company that has grown, we think in terms of generations. She is with her cousin Dr. Philipp Reisert Managing Director in the fifth generation. This not only harbors the desire to continue, but also the desire to move forward. And that is what C. Hafner does. Employees are more than just colleagues here. They are friends. They celebrate birthdays and weddings together. Colleagues become couples, couples become married couples. That's exactly what you notice: Sometimes the job is a calling, sometimes it's much more than that.das.

And that's exactly why we chose the gold from C. Hafner. Here, not only does the emotional setting fit our corporate concept, but also what the family business does for our future, our earth: Because here, recycled gold is traditionally used.

„From tradition: The processing of precious metals of all kinds in the expanding jewelery and watch industry led to processes for the reprocessing of these valuable raw materials as early as the late 19th century. Carl Hafner recognized the potential early on and founded the company as a so-called Kehret preparation, i.e. the recovery of precious metals from processing waste.n.

In our 170-year company history, the focus has always been on thatrecycling of precious metals and has been constantly further developed technologically. As early as the 1990s, we built a recycling plant that far exceeded the requirements placed on nature and the environment and which today forms the basis for the CO2 neutrality of our processes.“

This is where tradition meets expertise. And upclimate neutrality. Because the gold ofC Hafner is produced in an environmentally friendly manner and the company offsets the CO2 that is still emitted after extensive optimizations in the manufacturing processes. The extraction of precious metals from mines has so far been associated with images of devastated landscapes, uncontrolled use of chemicals and poor working conditions. A study by the INEC Institute has now for the first time the CO2 balance of recycled gold determined. The result was impressive: the extraction of precious metals from secondary material emits up to 99.8% less CO2 than that from mine gold. This was the reason for us to take the last step and make our recycling process CO2-neutral.“

Maren Jewelery and C. Hafner that fits together. Together we fight for jewelry and beauty in harmony with nature. Jewelery with a future. Or to put it in the words of C Hafner to say: Just as we are pioneers in the refineries, we also see Maren Jewelery as one of the pioneers in the jewelery industry. Only together can we achieve something..“