At the biggest jewelry center in the United States, Alberto Hernandez fired up his machine on a recent day and waited until it glowed bright orange inside before shoveling in an assortment of rings, earrings and necklaces weighing about as much as a bar of soap: just under 100 grams, or 3.2 troy ounces.
Minutes later, the bubbling liquid metal was cooling in a rectangular cast the size of a woman's shoe. An X-ray machine determined it was 56.5 gold, making it worth 177,000 based on the price of gold that day.
As gold prices soar to record highs during global economic jitters, hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of gold are circulating through the doors of St. Vincent Jewelry Center in downtown Los Angeles on any given day.
Many of the center's 500 independent tenants, which include jewelers, gold refiners and assayers, say they have never seen such a surge in customers.
"Right now, we're seeing a lot of rappers and stuff melting their big pieces," said Alberto's nephew, Sabashden Hernandez, who works at AM Precious Metals. "We're getting a lot of new customers who are just getting all of their grandfather's stuff, melting it down pretty much."