As the temperature in the furnace rose to 1,200C, a broad-shouldered worker prepared to melt the gold rings, chains and bracelets — which constituted a lifetime’s memories for countless families.

They had been given for births, christenings and weddings, but in this hot, dark workshop on the southern edge of Switzerland, love had been stripped away to leave a value that investors say is more durable — that of precious metal.

The jewellery had been sold by often hard-up families seeking cash as gold prices hit a record $1,110 (£665) an ounce this week.

“We’ll get hundreds of kilos of scrap jewellery from Europe this year and I’ve never seen that amount before,” said Erhard Oberli, chief executive of Argor-Heraeus, a large gold refinery.

Here in Ticino, the Italian-speaking Swiss canton that is the world’s gold processing capital, with about a third of total global output, no one is complaining about the trend.

At Argor-Heraeus, one of three firms that dominate the market, the transformation of jewellery into bars will supplement the main business of refining ore mined in Latin America, Asia or elsewhere.

Most of the jewellery arrives in Switzerland from brokers that are flourishing while unemployment spreads.

In the US, some pawnbrokers say they are doing better than at any time since the Great Depression. In France hundreds of bistro owners are boosting their usual income from meals and cigarette sales by offering to buy unwanted gold. In the UK, Albemarle & Bond, a pawnbroker, says business is booming. Divorced wives are offloading wedding rings and men are getting rid of jewellery they may have received at their christening. Families are selling earrings that have gathered dust for generations.

Some of the jewellery arrives intact and has to be dismantled.More often, it has already been treated by merchants; melted into rough bars then transported in plain white vans to the plant to be smelted. The process is labour intensive and the work, amid stifling heat, requires a high level of precision. Every speck counts at the refinery, where gold dust is recovered from the door mat and from the annual incineration of staff overalls.

“Nothing must be wasted,” said Mr Oberli — which is not surprising given that the world is cherishing gold as it has not done for decades. The price has risen by 152 per cent in the past five years.

The most tangible measure of the economic climate, however, is demand for smaller bars and ingots from individual investors — keen for the oldest security of all.

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