From Blackberry to iPhone and Beyond . . .

Scientists and lay people (otherwise known as “the men and women in the street”) love to predict the death of precious metals. They like to believe that gold, silver and platinum will lose value because they will be replaced by other materials and other chemicals in a lot of devices and applications.

“The World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) said on Wednesday the global platinum market would see a much larger surplus this year than it previously forecast and another big oversupply in 2022.”

“Platinum Market Heading for Biggest Surplus in Years: WPIC,” The Business News, November 24, 2021

If you look at trends in precious metal prices over the last decade, you will notice that prices have risen steadily. There have been some ups and downs, but prices have generally trended up.

If you then look at the trading prices of stocks and mutual funds, you will see a much different pattern. Some stocks have risen steadily in value, sometimes dramatically so. But you will see that other stocks have fallen dramatically in value and, in some cases, the companies that issued them have simply ceased to exist.

Yes, it will. Why? Some of the reasons will surprise you.

Inflation, which everyone is worried about, can actually make it more profitable to invest in precious metals. There are several reasons. One is simply that the prices of precious metals will rise, along with the prices of everything else, due to inflation. Another reason is that manufacturers of electronic devices, jewelry, thermocouples – and everything else that contains precious metals – will be paying more for the precious metals they need to make their products. So your gold scrap, platinum scrap, and silver scrap will be more in demand and will therefore rise in value.

Have you visited a jewelry factory recently? Or the business place of a jewelry maker who repairs jewelry?

If you have, you have noticed that they are noisy places. Grinders, polishers and other pieces of machinery are whirring away. And do you know what? The specific places where that noise is coming from are the same places where you are most likely to find small amounts of gold, platinum and silver dusts and powders that can be worth much more than you suspect.

Road & Track magazine reports that in 2024, a company called Forze Hydrogen Racing will enter the historic 24-hour race that is held every year at Le Mans. Forze’s racecar is being built by a group of engineering students, who are developing the car with the help of Hyundai. It will compete at Le Mans in a new class that will be created that year for fuel cell cars.

“. . . the future might be closer than it appears,” Road & Track asks, and that could be true.

“When I was looking at a small box full of metal pellets, I just knew they were made of platinum,” says a man who has spent years investing in precious metals. “There were only about 25 of them, but something about them convinced me they were platinum beads that had probably been used in plating operations. So I bought them up, had them tested and sure enough, I was right.”

“The EPA estimates that, in 2009, US consumers and businesses discarded televisions, computers, cell phones and hard copy peripherals (including printers, scanners, faxes) totaling 2.37 million tons. Approximately 25 percent of these electronics were collected for recycling, with the remainder disposed of primarily in landfills, where the precious metals cannot be recovered.”

- Source: “Cleaning Up Electronic Waste,” The United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Over the last few years, people have become skeptical about importing and exporting just about anything.

Due to high tariffs on goods imported into the U.S., doing so has become less attractive and more difficult for American companies. Plus, simply transporting foreign goods into the U.S. has become more difficult. Off the coast of California, ships carrying all kinds of goods from Asia, including semiconductors, electronic devices and even automobiles, are waiting to dock. Although that delivery holdup is lessening, the slowdown that was caused by the coronavirus pandemic is still exerting a negative effect on U.S. manufacturing and commerce.

In a recent post on this blog, we explored the many ways that silver is used in manufacturing. Today, let’s explore the many ways that platinum is used too.

You might be surprised to know that platinum, an inert element that resists interacting with other chemicals, plays a central role in manufacturing.

If you dream about making a fortune trading in precious metals, you have probably been wondering whether a new golden age in precious metal investing could soon begin if the Infrastructure and Jobs Act (also known as H.R. 3684) becomes law. You, like us, are envisioning huge quantities of gold scrap, silver scrap, and even platinum scrap piling up in scrapyards. Pull up your pick up, load up, and be ready to become a billionaire.

You’ve heard that many colleges are having a hard time staying in business. They’re finding it difficult to enroll full classes of students. They’re also giving financial aid to most of the students they do accept. And some colleges have actually lowered the cost of their tuition.

When you invest in bullion or coins, you know almost exactly how much precious metal they contain – or come close to knowing.

Investing in scrap is another matter completely, as these examples show . . .

Over time, an investor bought about 200 discarded cellphones. He had paid about 50 cents for each of them, so his total investment was about $100.00. When they were recycled to extract the gold they contained, it turned out that each device contained about 0.001 Troy Ounces of gold. In sum, the gold in all those phones was worth about $350.00. So if you do the math, that shows that his investment was a very good one indeed. His $100,00 investment netted him more than a twofold return.

We are writing today about fuel cell cars for a very simple reason . . .

The fuel cells that are found in hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars contain platinum, and could become an important source of platinum for smart investors in platinum scrap

Yet currently, only two fuel cell-powered passenger cars are available for sale in the United States:

If you’ve been following the news this week, you know that President Biden signed an executive order stating that by year 2030, between 40% and 50% of all new cars sold in the U.S. must be electric.

When we dug in and took a closer look at what that order requires, we discovered some aspects of it that are nothing short of amazing.

Here at Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners, we are proud that we are helping to protect the environment with everything we do.

When we are processing precious metal scrap of any kind, we use the latest processes that virtually eliminate the release of noxious gases into the air. Although smelting and other reprocessing processes often involve high temperatures, we never release heated liquids or gases into the air or the water supply. We pride ourselves on having a very small carbon footprint. So when you send your gold, platinum or silver scrap to us for testing and processing, you can do so with a clean conscience.

If you’ve been letting your metal detector gather dust, now could be the time to take it out and hit outdoor areas in search of gold, silver and platinum.

Nearly every week, a new story reports on finds of precious metals that have been discovered using metals detectors that are probably no more advanced than the one you already own.

The most recent of these news stories reports something rather incredible. Earlier this year, amateur metal prospectors found more than 100 French silver coins underground in a field in Poland. And like all tantalizing discoveries of hidden treasure, this one is mysterious.

Platinum is a bright, shiny precious metal that has unique properties when it is used as a catalyst in a number of different applications.

When a variety of different gases are passed through platinum-containing powders and wafers, the platinum causes unique things to happen, as we’ll explore in a minute. And the good news for recyclers is that even after those platinum is no longer functioning efficiently, enough platinum is left behind to be worth recycling.

We have been writing lately about cars that are powered not by gasoline or electricity, but by hydrogen fuel cells. They will soon allow you to fill your car with hydrogen that will be available at “gas stations” that offer hydrogen alongside gasoline.

Here at Specialty Metals, we have a long track record of recycling gold scrap, silver scrap, and platinum scrap for our clients. We have helped countless customers make a lot of money in those metals, and we know we will continue to do so in the future.