At Specialty Metals, Smelters, and Refiners, we understand the importance of discerning the true nature of your precious metal scrap. Whether you're a jewelry enthusiast, a medical device manufacturer, or a collector, knowing whether your material contains platinum, iridium, or a combination of both is essential for ensuring its value and utility.

Is platinum toxic?

In its pure form, platinum is inert and does not react with most chemicals or substances, including acids and bases. This property makes it highly resistant to corrosion and tarnish. Consequently, platinum is often used in medical and dental implants, such as pacemakers, stents, and dental crowns, due to its biocompatibility and resistance to corrosion.

When you go hunting for platinum scrap, chances are you are expecting to find scrap that is made of bright, white, shiny metal. And you’re right to be expecting that. After all, that is what platinum looks like.

But if you think that way, you are overlooking the fact that valuable platinum scrap is not always made of pure platinum. In fact, the scrap you are looking for will often be made of an alloy comprised of platinum and other metals. Those alloys might not be bright, white, and shiny. But make no mistake about it, those platinum alloys are well worth recycling. 

If you are on the lookout for platinum – and you should be because, at the time of writing this post, the precious metal is currently trading for $1,334 per Troy Ounce – you should be looking for small items of jewelry that are made of the metal. 

You can find several kinds of platinum jewelry at estate sales, junk shops, and even in the places where you store jewelry in your home. 

What kinds of small pieces of jewelry are most likely to be made of platinum? Some examples include: 

With platinum trading for $1,400/Troy Ounce today, it is well worth looking for it in unusual places. Even a small amount of certain kinds of scrap that will fit in a shoebox or in your pocket could bring you a much bigger profit than you expected.

Recycling platinum scrap requires expertise, skill, and the right equipment. It is a complex process, and there are several mistakes your refinery can make that can cost you money. 

Why can these errors cost you money? It can happen in two ways . . . First, the quality of the platinum that is obtained by the recycling company could be adversely affected. And second, the quantity of platinum obtained could be reduced. (In other words, some platinum is lost during the process of extraction.)

We recently visited the Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. What a display!

More than 130 meteorites are displayed there, including the huge 34-ton Cape York Meteorite, also known as Ahnighito.  That monstrous meteorite contains mostly iron. 

That display got us wondering about the metallic content of all those meteorites, all of which had literally fallen from the sky. Did they contain gold or other precious metals?

Iridium, one of the platinum group metals, is worth a lot of money. It is trading at about $6,000 per Troy Ounce. 

That’s a high trading price. But before you go hunting for this white shiny metal, please read our post today. Although iridium is worth a lot of money, it is really hard to find. So our advice to you is to understand iridium, but to place it low on the list of precious metals you are hunting for.

There is a simple reason why the demand for platinum scrap will remain strong in the future . . . 

The world’s platinum mines cannot keep up with the demand for platinum in manufacturing

According to statistics gathered by Statistica.com, 211.6 metric tons of platinum was used in manufacturing in year 2022.  

That’s a lot of platinum, and it might interest you to know where it was used.

If you have platinum scrap to refine, you could deliver it to a platinum refinery near where you live, walk away with a check for the amount of platinum that the refinery estimates your scrap contains, and never give it a second thought. 

“Global Precious Metal Market to Grow at a CAGR of 8.1%, during Forecast Period,” a report that BlueWeave Consulting published on September 6, 2022, makes some very encouraging observations about the strength of the market for precious metals.

Here's what the report has to say about coming growth in the Compound Aggregate Growth Rate (CAGR) for precious metals:

It’s easy to junk a car. You call a local company that runs ads that say, “We buy cars” and they come and tow your car away.

Yes, that’s easy. But if you dispose of your old car that way, chances are good you will be giving away gold, silver and other valuable materials that can be worth $100.00 or more. So . . . pull them out before you junk that car and talk to us about recycling them.

If you think there are a lot of electrical switches in your home – hundreds, probably, if not more – you would be amazed to learn how many switches can be found in a factory where any kind of manufacturing process is taking place. It doesn’t matter whether that plant is making mechanical components, chemicals, paints, solar panels or much of anything else, you are going to find switches everywhere.

Most people own at least one piece of jewelry that has broken. Do you?

I happen to own a watch that is damaged. One of the watch’s four lugs (the little bars where the watch band attaches) has broken off. I contacted the company that made the watch and a customer service representative told me that I could send it in and pay a $75.00 service fee to find out how much it would cost to have the lug soldered back on. But since the watch is not worth much more than $100.00, I just put it away, and there it sits.

What valuable metals can be found in scrapped cars?

If you ask the man in the street that question, chances are he will tell you, “There’s gold in the electronic components and platinum in the catalytic converters.”

And your man in the street friend is telling you the truth because those are two places where gold scrap and platinum scrap can be found and extracted for recycling. But what your friend is not remembering is that other metals and materials can be profitably recycled from cars.

It has been a while since we have written a post about finding hidden treasure. But today, we would like to explore the topic again.

Why? Because news stories about finding buried treasure never seem to go away. Earlier this month, a treasure was found near Santa Fe that was buried decades ago by an eccentric man named Forrest Fenn. People have been searching for this hidden box of gold for decades. And the search was clearly worth the effort. The man who found it reported that the box contained gold and jewels valued at more than $1 million.

When a community pool reopened in a suburban town a few weeks ago, a pool service was called in to service the filtration system. Usually, servicing the pool is pretty routine. But this year, the technicians found more jewelry in the system than usual – jewelry that swimmers had lost last year. There were two platinum engagement rings, a bunch of earrings, and pieces of costume jewelry. And when the technicians removed a perforated drain cover from the floor of the pool, they found still more jewelry.

You have items lying around your house that contains valuable precious metals. Other people in your community have them too.

So, here’s a simple idea for a way to help your favorite cause – whether it’s a school, a religious institution, a hospital, or your favorite charity . . .

The words of a classic rock song by Bob Dylan tell us, “The times they are a-changing.”

They really apply if you invest in platinum scrap, gold scrap and silver scrap. Here are some trends that will cause major changes for precious metal investors in the next five years.

Lots of debris is created when older buildings are renovated, demolished or replaced. That debris, which is usually carted away and discarded, can contain precious metals in the following forms . . .