Academy · Syllabus

Twelve modules. One metal, end to end.

Two weeks each, six to seven hours a week. Every module carries a casebook for your home market, and every module ends in something you hand in and someone marks.

Choose your home market

Casebook content and assessment are set against it. You pick a second market in week two.

Part I · weeks 1–12
Certificate exit point · 74 hours
M1

The six metals: matter, money and why these elements

Properties that pay · stock versus flow · troy, tola, tael · what gold is, in five households

Wks 1–2 · 12 h
M2

Purity, alloys and the language of fineness

916, 750, 585, 375 · coloured golds and rhodium wear · plated, filled, rolled, vermeil

Wks 3–4 · 12 h
M3

Where metal comes from: mining, refining, recycling

Ore to doré · AISC and what it hides · Miller and Wohlwill · why the brand on a bar is part of its price

Wks 5–6 · 12 h
M4

Assay and authentication

Fire assay · what XRF cannot see · why tungsten defeats a density check · counterfeit typology · protocol design. Fourteen hours, and the hardest thing you will hand in.

Wks 7–8 · 14 h
M5

Hallmarking and the global assurance systems

The four UK offices · the Vienna Convention · BIS and HUID · what a blockchain provenance claim actually proves

Wks 9–10 · 12 h
M6

The physical trade: premiums, spreads and making charges

Making charges and wastage · old-gold exchange, where the real margin sits · the comparison worksheet you keep

Wks 11–12 · 12 h
Part II · weeks 13–24
Diploma · capstone runs from week 18
M7

Market structure: London, COMEX, Shanghai and the rest

Loco London and the loco swap · the LBMA auctions · EFP, and what a blown-out basis is telling you

Wks 13–14 · 12 h
M8

Price formation, macro drivers, and honest forecasting

Real rates · the inflation-hedge claim examined honestly · calibrated intervals against a random walk. Taught from a negative result.

Wks 15–16 · 14 h
M9

Paper, pooled and digital

ETF creation in metal · digital gold and the rules being drafted right now · what a token is a claim on

Wks 17–18 · 12 h
M10

Ownership, storage, custody and proof

The valuables sub-limit that catches everyone · what a vault receipt is legally · a file that survives probate

Wks 19–20 · 12 h
M11

Tax, regulation and AML

Four taxation models · FATF Recommendation 22 and the dealer's obligations · where education ends and regulated advice begins

Wks 21–22 · 14 h
M12

Responsible sourcing and the supply-chain standard

The OECD five steps · LBMA and RJC assurance · recycled gold as the laundering vector

Wks 23–24 · 12 h
CAP

Professional Practice Portfolio and oral viva

Choose one of four briefs at week 18 — an authentication and valuation report, a market analysis, an OECD due-diligence file, or a buyer's decision memo. Then defend it on camera for half an hour with a named external examiner. Mandatory to pass.

Wks 18–24 · 30 h
No modules selected Pick the ones you would turn up for. This is how we decide what to produce first.

Registration is not open. Nothing on this page takes a payment, and the only thing we do with an address is tell you when a module is scheduled. Aurix Academy is a trading name of Sandhu Technologies LLC, a private training provider — not a university or college. The Professional Diploma in Precious Metals is a professional development credential: it is not a degree, does not carry academic credit, and is not accredited by an accrediting agency recognised by the U.S. Department of Education. Every external figure quoted across these pages carries a source and a date.