The Model
Origin to settlement, bridged with discipline.
A structured receivables finance model for physical metal flows. We never hold the metal. We finance the documents.
The business in one paragraph
Our business is to finance the gap between two events. The first event is the shipment of physical metal from a licensed seller at origin. The second event is the settlement of that metal by a refinery or offtake counterparty after independent assay. In between sits a window of working capital risk, transit risk, documentation risk and counterparty risk. We carry that window, on documented terms, against a financing fee and a spread.
Why this is a receivable, not a speculation
A bridge finance transaction at Aurelian Mercantile begins after a refinery intake is confirmed and a buyer is contracted, never before. The metal that we finance is already destined for a known settlement point with a known counterparty at a known price formula. That converts the transaction from a speculation on price into a structured receivable against a near certain payable.
The economic value we capture is the financing margin on that receivable. We do not earn from price exposure. We earn from carrying a window of risk that someone else cannot finance and we can.
The process
- 01
Origination
A licensed seller with verifiable mine origin and a documented export licence brings a flow. We confirm the seller's standing and the metal's provenance through independent due diligence.
- 02
Refinery intake and offtake
Before any transaction proceeds, an approved refinery confirms intake and a buyer contracts the offtake. The transaction is structured around the destination, not the source.
- 03
Instrument
Working capital is committed through documentary instruments, namely escrow or client account, letter of credit, or standby letter of credit, with release against verified shipping, customs, insurance and assay documents.
- 04
Movement
Metal is shipped under documented chain of custody, insured for cargo and political risk, by a licensed logistics provider. Custody is outsourced to a regulated vault at any holding point.
- 05
Assay and settlement
The refinery performs independent assay. The buyer or refinery settles into a banked account against the confirmed assay. We do not pay the seller against a promise; we pay against documented purity.
- 06
Profit waterfall
The waterfall pays the seller, the financiers, the intermediaries, the firm's operating costs, and the firm's foundation owner. The development purpose of the foundation is funded by the same flow that produced the financing margin.
What we do not do
We do not warehouse metal on our own premises. We do not take speculative inventory positions. We do not finance flows whose origin cannot be independently verified. We do not transact in physical cash. We do not work with sellers who cannot be banked. We do not transact in jurisdictions, with counterparties, or on terms that would not survive institutional anti money laundering review. The discipline is the product.