In the early days of 3-D printing, it took several steps to “print” a metal part. If you wanted to print a gold ring, for example, you had to follow these steps . . .

“EPA Allows Mine Company to Pursue Permits Near Alaska Bay,” an article that Becky Bohrer wrote for the Associated Press on May 12, reports that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of approving a permit for a new copper and gold mine in the Bristol Bay area of Alaska. According to the article, that region produces half of the world’s sockeye salmon. The article reports that the area is also home to a fervent group of environmentalists who vehemently oppose opening a new mine in their pristine area.

There are many places to look for gold. You can pan for it in Yukon streams, look for it in dresser drawers, or search for it behind the walls in boats that the government confiscated from drug dealers. But today, let’s consider a place where you have a much better chance of finding gold bits and scrap . . .

“EPA Allows Mine Company to Pursue Permits Near Alaska Bay,” an article that Becky Bohrer wrote for the Associated Press on May 12, reports that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of approving a permit for a new copper and gold mine in the Bristol Bay area of Alaska...

It is easy to find businesses that are for sale. You will find them advertised in newspapers that are published near where you live. Plus, you can find hundreds of them online on BizBuySell.com and other online listings of businesses that are for sale. Just search online for “businesses for sale” and you’ll soon be looking at hundreds of them. 

Please take a minute to consider this imaginary story… You buy an old retail building that was once home to several stores. One of them was a pharmacy. While you’re exploring there, you open a drawer and find several dozen boxes of old wound dressings that contain silver. You then send those wound dressing to a precious metals refinery like us, we process them, and send you a nice big check for several hundred dollars. It's a nice fantasy, isn’t it? But if you find any, they are not going to contain enough silver to be worth much. Sorry to deflate your dreams of wealth. But let’s look at some other places where silver and other precious metals can be found in the world of medicine. 

If you’ve ever walked around an old industrial site hunting for precious metal scrap, you know that the search can be overwhelming. You examine heaps of dirt, piles of chemicals hiding in the bushes, old steel drums that contain dried or wet sediment, streams where chemicals and byproducts were once deposited, and all kinds of other places that could be hiding precious metal scrap. Although you cannot identify most precious metal scrap just by looking at it, here’s a quick visual guide to some of the materials that can often be refined profitably in our precious metals refinery.

...Presto! Gold plating has happened. It’s a simple process that has been used for years to apply gold plating to jewelry and other metal items. But today’s post is not about recycling those items. It’s about reclaiming gold from the tanks where the process took place. Let’s take a closer look...

What about the gold-toned Oscars that are given to Academy Award winners? They are only plated with a very thin layer of 24-karat gold. Even though they stand 13.5 inches tall and weigh more than eight pounds, they still don’t contain enough gold to recycle for a significant amount of money. But there is value in some trophies, medals and awards...

It seems likely that prices are trending up, and could continue to do so for months, or even for several years. If that is the case, what are your best gold investment strategies? If you believe that gold prices will continue to rise, here are two to consider…

Since ancient times, jewelers have been creating rings and other pieces of jewelry by pouring molten metal into molds. What methods did they use? Have any new methods have come along? It’s a fascinating subject that you should understand if you invest in precious metals. In today’s post, we’ll take a closer look.

On our blog today, we're featuring a fantastic video that shows all the work that a company called Baron Rings put into designing and manufacturing the championship rings that were awarded to the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers. It is inspiring to see a company create something so beautiful. The video reminds us of two important considerations about reclaiming precious metals from older commemorative and class rings…

Twenty-five years ago, few people could have predicted that people would be using drones to prospect for gold and other precious metals. In today’s post, let’s put on our thinking caps and predict how tech-savvy treasure-seekers will be looking for gold and other precious metals in the years ahead.

Our editorial team had a very busy 2016, writing a total of 46 blog posts on a variety of topics. Some posts contained only nuts-and-bolts advice on finding and processing precious metals. Others covered trends. Yet we did our utmost to deliver practical, usable advice in every post we wrote. In today’s post, we’ll organize those 2016 posts by topic, so you can quickly find the information you’re looking for.

Over the last four or five years, tens of thousands of older desktop computers have been scrapped. Although a lot of that recycling has already happened, it is still possible to find quantities of older desktops that you can buy at extremely low, junk prices. And if you can buy up a quantity of them and extract the gold they contain, you stand to make a very good profit.

Over the years, people have made all kinds of common-looking objects out of gold, platinum and silver. If you’re not alert, you could pass them by when you search for precious metal items in antique stores, estate sales, and even online auctions

That’s why this could be a very profitable season to go looking for valuable items that people have lost during the summer months. Rings, watches, cellphones and other stuff is out there waiting for you, so let’s review some of the strategies that can help you find them. 

Why look at online auction sites? Simply because they offer you the fastest way to examine hundreds and hundreds of different items that are for sale. You don’t have to travel to antique malls, estate sales, or live auctions. Just fire up your computer and start looking. 

Recently one of the greatest conspiracy theories in history was laid to rest when Donald J. Trump announced that Barack Obama really was born in the United States. Why was Mr. Trump empowered to settle the that particular question? We don’t know, but we do know that, with that conspiracy theory behind us, we are now free to turn our attention to other weird theories about precious metals. Here are some unusual beliefs about precious metals, with at least partial answers about whether they could be true.

People are collecting folding pocket knives, hunting knives, highly stylized custom knives crafted by skilled artisans, ancient knives, and knives that fall into other niches. The question is, do any of them contain silver or gold? The short answer is yes, they do and if you take a close look at an unusual knife, it could contain small decorations and “extras” that are made of silver or even gold or platinum.