With gold currently trading at $1,787.40 per troy ounce, this is a good time to look for and recycle even small amounts of gold.

Here are some easy-to-overlook places you can find small amounts of gold today – even in your own home.

Wires are one of the most common kinds of scrap. The majority of them contain very little gold, silver or platinum. But some do. In today’s post, we’ll explain how to identify wires that contain precious metal.

Where to Look for Wire

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.

Okay, You think you know all there is to know about precious metal scrap, here’s a question for you . . .

What precious metals are found in a regular old gas-powered automobile?

Chances are you can answer that question without thinking too hard about it. A gas or diesel-powered car contains gold (in the printed circuit boards that are onboard), some silver in them too, and a small quantity of platinum in its catalytic converter.

Let’s say that you have just finished pulling the printed circuit boards out of 100 old laptops and you’ve packed the boards up and sent them to Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners to be processed. Or let’s say that you have pulled the circuit boards out of cellphones, old stereo components or even old televisions.

Falling Prices and Better Technology Make this a Great Time to Upgrade Your Prospecting Drone

We have written about drones before on this blog. They could be the greatest devices ever invented to look for precious metals.

What is the most unusual thing about gold? If you think about that question for a minute, chances are your answer to it will be, “Gold is beautiful.”

Of course, that answer is right. Gold really is beautiful, which explains why it has been the most sought-after metal on earth for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians and Assyrians loved it, as did the Vikings, the Incas, the king and queens of Europe, and everyone else through the ages. Chances are your grandparents and parents had gold wedding rings and if you are married, chances are you and your spouse have them too. And if pure 24K gold weren’t beautiful enough on its own, it can be made into rose gold, white gold, and even green and pink gold by adding other metals.

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.

Silver is used more in industrial and manufacturing processes than any other precious metal. That means that silver is, and will remain, a great metal to invest in.

In today’s post, we will explore how silver is used in a variety of manufacturing processes. But before we do, we should state that silver is used in two different ways in manufacturing:

A man in Delaware emailed us recently to ask, “Are there any scrap gold buyers near me?” He explained that there were plenty of companies in his area that would be happy to buy gold jewelry, bullion, and coins from him if he walked through their front doors. But nobody in his area was in the business of buying the kind of gold scrap he wanted to sell – a bunch of old circuit boards and used sputtering targets that contained gold.

Many precious metal investors believe that they will make a lot of money if they look for “one big win” in their investing. They will find one batch of gold scrap, platinum scrap or even silver scrap, make a lot of money from it, and then they will be set for life.

Of course, that does happen. (We could tell you stories about times when it has.) But looking for one big high-paying batch of metal is not the most effective way to spend years investing and ending up with a large sum of money from investments.

If you’ve been following current events, you know that legislation could soon be passed by Congress that will result in improvements in our country’s infrastructure from coast to coast. Bridges will be built and rebuilt, roadways will be improved, internet access will be improved in underserved areas, and many more improvements are planned.

If you’ve been following current events, you know that legislation could soon be passed by Congress that will result in improvements in our country’s infrastructure from coast to coast. Bridges will be built and rebuilt, roadways will be improved, internet access will be improved in underserved areas, and many more improvements are planned.

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 . . .

You find an item that’s made of metal. You don’t know exactly what it is. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth a lot of money. Why not call Specialty Metals to find out?

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.

What are the latest techniques in metal testing to be sure you are getting full value?

One thing for certain is that the old-fashioned kind of test that you have probably seen performed – the one where you rub a piece of jewelry on a stone and then drip some testing fluid on it, wastes a small quantity of precious metal. Why? Because in order to do the test, you have to rub off a quantity of that metal, you cannot reclaim it.