We’ve published posts in the past about why recycling gold is socially responsible. Recycled gold doesn’t have to be mined, and mining pollutes air and water and burns fossil fuels. And then there’s the fact that recycled gold is not dug from the earth by underpaid, exploited workers. Of course, it is possible that the gold that we recycle from computer motherboards, old jewelry and other sources does have a “dirty” past – because gold doesn’t have DNA, it is impossible to know whether it originally came from a mine in Africa or from ancient amulets that were stolen from the Aztecs. But even if that is the case, the gold that we recycle today is generations removed from any dirty sources and less closely linked to environmental or societal ills. 

We’ve written about sputtering targets in the past, but a few recent calls made us think that this would be a good time to remind our readers that most used sputtering targets still contain precious metals that are worth extracting.

We’ve already written about pink gold, rose gold, white gold, and even green gold on the Specialty Metals blog. (See related posts below.) We thought we’d seen just about every color, then we found an article entitled “What Can Make a Piece of Gold Turn Blue?” that Esther Inglis-Arkell wrote for io9.com. 

Today, lots of older flat screen TVs are appearing in dumpsters at the dump too. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, since flat screens have been the televisions of choice for more than a decade now. They’re already breaking down and wearing out. Plus, consumers are tossing old flat screens that still work pretty well so they can upgrade to smart TVs, bigger TVs, higher-definition TVs, and lots of other new products.

Did you know that some thermocouples contain gold and gold alloys? They are highly specialized, not the kind of thermocouples or thermocouple wire that you can pull out of old stoves or air conditioners. They are usually used in laboratory settings to measure low to moderate temperatures. If you acquire even a small quantity of them...

Recycling precious metals often involves analyzing and refining big messy batches of mixed materials. People who own these mixed lots of material know that gold or silver or platinum is “in there” somewhere, but don’t know where it is, what it is, or how much of it is present. 

We don’t have a crystal ball that lets us see what precious metals you now own – either in bullion, in materials that you haven’t yet recycled or elsewhere - but we’re willing to guess that most of your metals investments fall into the mid-term category that FINRA defines: you’re going to have them for between three and 10 years, so they should be investments that offer stable long-term growth.

If you forgot to do any spring cleaning, these energizing autumn days can be a good time to get going. If you do, there is a pretty good chance that you’ll discover some items that will provide you with a bigger payback than you realize. Here are some items that are lying around my house. Odds are pretty good that they can be recycled very profitably by a top precious metals refinery like Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners. 

Although we don’t know for certain where gold is headed, we do know one thing, which is that it’s a good idea to keep tabs on trading prices. And here’s an easy way to do it . . . Bookmark our home page and check it often, because we update and post current trading prices from the London Fix every day.

We are in the business of recycling gold from a number of sources. We work with gold scrap, electrical devices, old jewelry and even ore and sand.  What is our best advice about what you should do today if you have recyclable gold-bearing materials – perhaps materials that you have been holding until gold prices increase?

On Monday, July 20, 2015, the financial markets got a jolt when the trading price of gold in Asia suddenly plummeted to a five-year low. The impact was felt globally. Half the world away in London, the price fell 2% on news of the Asian price drop. One celebrity investment expert, CNBC’s Jim Cramer, got on air only hours later and advised people to buy gold at its low price, as a “hedge against inflation.” That’s traditional wisdom about buying gold and other precious metals – investors should buy and hold as a hedge against inflation. It’s good advice, but it makes us wonder why so few investment experts are recommending buying gold at low prices and then selling it when prices rise.

Gold makes different people smile for different reasons. It’s making Rouhani grin because he’ll use gold to cushion his country from recessions, depressions and other economic calamities. And do you know what? Gold can give you a similar level of security too.

If you have been waiting to recycle or sell your gold until trading prices rise, we invite you to consider a Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners Pool Account.  Our Pool Account offers significant benefits, including the ability to sell your gold when prices rise in the future.

If you called a precious metals refinery for an over-the-phone appraisal, you would be pretty excited to hear the words, “Your scrap could be worth an awful lot of money.” And you should be happy. The problem is, those words could lure you into one of the precious metal scams that are happening today.

Write here...

Valuable and precious metals are used in many medical devices. But before we explain where those metals are used, let’s answer this question: Where can you buy scrapped medical devices? The short answer to that question is, it can be difficult to obtain large quantities of used medical devices… Still, it is possible to obtain and recycle quantities of some medical devices that can offer you a good return on your investment if you send them to us to be recycled. Let’s take a closer look.

So if there is enough gold on earth for each of us to own five golden rings, have you gotten yours yet? I am not joking, because if you devote some time and energy to acquiring gold, you can get to that five-ring, .76 troy ounce figure more quickly than you expect. Where can you find that gold? For starters, in places like these that you might be overlooking. . .

When you send us old catalytic converters, sputtering targets, dental scrap or other items to be processed, we recover precious metals from them that were mined from the earth years ago. Those same metals will then be reused in new applications that can include jewelry making, medical technologies, electronics manufacturing, and many more. What could be more efficient?

More and more towns and cities across America are holding recycling day events to collect old electronic devices. Electronic recycling days provide a needed service to individuals, who often do not know how or where to responsibly recycle old electrical devices. Whether you are a company that already has stockpiles of electronics to recycle or a company that wants to do something good for your community, you should consider getting involved. By doing good, you could also have an opportunity to earn income.

If you go shopping at antique malls or estate sales, you will discover a number of items for sale that are made of gray metal. How can you tell if they are made of silver, white gold or platinum?

Someone called one of our expert consultants at 800-426-2344 last week and asked, “Is lithium a precious metal?” He had a lot of old printed-circuit boards that had batteries attached to them and was wondering if he would get paid for the lithium that they contained if he sent them in to be recycled.