How much gold, silver, platinum and other precious metals were in those buildings before they burned? Are those valuable metals ever recovered, or are they still waiting to be found in the ashes and rubble? 

Watching Downton Abbey can alert you to all kinds of antique precious-metal items that you can find if you’re shopping online, at antique stores, at estate sales . . . just about everywhere old metal items can be found. Here’s a checklist of items that we noticed during just one episode of the show...

The lesson for real estate developers is to make sure to recover precious metals from appliances – or at the very least, to work out a deal with the scrap metal recycling company to share the value of precious metals.

If you’re looking to buy a business that could have untapped quantities of precious metals, which businesses should you be looking at? That question is well worth asking, because when people dispose of businesses they often do not take the time to diligently assess the value of the assets that they are selling. Sometimes they are selling because they are in financial distress. Sometimes they have lost interest and simply want to dispose of a business. Sometimes they are selling businesses that belonged to relatives who became too infirm or old to run them. Sometimes owners have passed away and lawyers want to sell businesses quickly to settle estates.

...Yet there is a compelling reason why business brokers should slow down a little and take a close look at the businesses that they are listing for sale: Many businesses contain sources of gold and other precious metals that can be profitably recycled with a qualified precious metals refinery like ours....