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? 

Findings are small, pre-manufactured metal items that are used in jewelry production. Chances are pretty good that as you read this post, some of them are right there in the room with you. If you bought a nice silver chain to give your niece for a present, for example, open the box and take a look at it. You’ll see that there is a small ring attached to one end, and some kind of clasp to the other. Those add-on pieces are findings. 

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.

Last year we published a list of the most popular blog posts that we ran in 2014 – the ones that had been viewed by the most people and that had generated the greatest number of comments. We’ve created a different list of best posts this year. They are posts that contain the kind of useful information that can quickly put a lot of money in your pocket – maybe even in time for the holidays. 

There has been so much hoopla about VW’s diesel crisis that it’s easy to overlook the chance that even more carmakers could be affected. We don’t have a crystal ball and we’re not saying that more car manufacturers have engaged in emissions deception. But let’s review who else is selling diesel-powered cars and light trucks in America right now... 

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’ve written before on this blog about how to make money recycling gold class rings. Today, let’s take a look at how you can profitably recycle older class rings that contain palladium and platinum. 

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.

It’s overwhelming. How are you going to figure out what you have and what it is worth? How will you know when the right time comes to sell it? Should you wait until prices hit the right levels, and how will you know when that happens? And while you’re trying to answer those questions, you do nothing.

If you’re interested in collecting and recycling catalytic converters for a profit, the arrival of all these high-tech vehicles can get confusing. Which of them contain cat converters, and which don’t?

Although platinum doesn’t rust or oxidize, it can discolor after it is exposed to high heat in laboratories. That bluish patina can be deceiving. You look at a discolored piece of thermocouple wire or a testing crucible or a stand that was used in the lab and think, “this discolored stuff can’t possibly be platinum.” The discolorations that affect used platinum mesh or sponge can be even more deceiving. They can be reduced to a blackish powder that you’d be tempted to sweep up and toss away.

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.

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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.

Many platinum investors are frozen in place today. Although they own scrapped catalytic converters, old lab testing vessels and other items that contain platinum, they are waiting until platinum prices increase before cashing in. Meanwhile, smart platinum investors are cashing in. Like other contrarian investors, they are moving ahead instead of staying fixated on just one factor as a sign of when to sell. Here are three compelling reasons why this is a great time to recycle platinum today instead of waiting...

This could be the best time ever to start a business collecting catalytic converters and sending them to Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners to be recycled. One thing for certain is that someone will be cashing in on the platinum, palladium, rhodium, cerium, manganese, and nickel that all those scrapped converters contain. If you are motivated to get a piece of the action, that someone could be you. Would starting a company to collect and recycle catalytic converters be a good career choice for you? Here are some steps that can help you decide.

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?

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?

Chances are that you only find small quantities of the valuable secondary platinum group metals (palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, and osmium) hiding in recyclable items that you think are made only of platinum. How can you tell if these rarer metals are present?