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 percent 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 ... (full story)