We have written about sputtering targets before on the Specialty Metals Blog. To review, they are multilayered disks that contain several different metals. When they are secured  inside a plasma plating tank and electrical current flows through them, their uppermost layer of metal (be it gold, platinum, or another metal) is dispersed into the plasma inside the tank.  Due to the flow of electrons, it adheres to the surface of whatever metal object is being plated.

“I have a collection of jewelry that belonged to my grandmother,” a precious metal investor wrote us recently. “It is a mix of costume jewelry and nicer items that are made of gold and silver. I suspect that the value of the collection exceeds the dollar value of the precious metals it contains, because many of the items are interesting historical pieces.”

Let’s start today’s article by asking you to answer this simple question about platinum . . . 

When you go looking for platinum scrap, you should be looking for a bright, white, metal with a shiny surface.   [  ] true [  ] false

You’ll be surprised to hear that the statement above is false! 

There is a simple reason why the demand for platinum scrap will remain strong in the future . . . 

The world’s platinum mines cannot keep up with the demand for platinum in manufacturing

According to statistics gathered by Statistica.com, 211.6 metric tons of platinum was used in manufacturing in year 2022.  

That’s a lot of platinum, and it might interest you to know where it was used.

A few years ago, it was time to replace the muffler/silencer on a riding mower. The company that owned it ordered a new muffler and yanked the old one off. At that point, the owner noticed that it had been installed by wrapping wire around one of the pipes that came out of the old muffler. 

That wire, which was about two feet long and weighed about 2/10 of a Troy Ounce, turned out to be made of pure platinum. It was worth more than $200.00. 

Let’s say you have a quantity of platinum scrap. It could be a few barrels full of old thermocouple wire, a batch of platinum wire you acquired from a jewelry factory that was going out of business, or even some old turbine blades from jet engines. 

If you have platinum scrap to refine, you could deliver it to a platinum refinery near where you live, walk away with a check for the amount of platinum that the refinery estimates your scrap contains, and never give it a second thought. 

If you look for business liquidation auctions in your area, you will find an interesting variety of businesses that are closed and that have hired auction firms to liquidate their equipment and supplies. 

In a recent search, we found auctioneers that were liquidating exercise equipment from health clubs . . . ice cream freezers from scoop shops . . . welding equipment from a muffler shop . . . and stoves from a pizzeria. 

If you ask “Where can I find a gold refinery near me?” online, you will get a lot of hits. Depending on where you live, you will find listings for “we buy gold” businesses, scrap metal yards, jewelry manufacturers, and probably more kinds of businesses too. 

A number of factors make certain kinds of precious metal scrap more desirable investments than others. 

These factors include the density and distribution of precious metal within the scrap. If one ounce of gold is distributed through two pounds of scrap, for example, that is a desirably, high density form of scrap. If that same single ounce of gold is distributed through two tons of dirt or sand, that makes for a less desirable investment. (It is easier to ship and process two pounds of material than it is to ship and process two tons.)

But We Predict Demand for Them Will Only Continue to Rise

LKAB, a government-owned Swedish mining company, recently discovered Europe’s largest deposit of rare earth metals in northern Sweden. The possibility of mining significant quantities of these rare elements in Europe is big news.

White gold is an alloy of gold and at least one white metal – sometimes more than one. Those additional metals could be nickel, silver, palladium, and/or zinc. Sometimes a little copper is added too, to make the alloy less brittle and easier to shape. But only a little copper can be added, because if you add too much of it to gold, the resulting alloy becomes pinkish in hue. (That’s where so-called pink gold comes from.)

Why We Are More Convenient – and Offer Better Value – than Gold Buyers Near You

When you have items to sell that are made of gold, silver, platinum or maybe pieces of jewelry that contain gemstones, chances are your first thought is, “I need to find a gold buyer near me.”

That’s a logical first thought to have. If there is an honest and reputable company near you that buys precious metals, what could be easier than getting in your car and going to see them? But there are a lot of good reasons why hundreds, and maybe even thousands of people across the United States have decided that it is smarter, and even more convenient, to do business with us. 

Rhodium is a hard metal. It looks like chrome, and it is highly resistant to corrosion.

But mostly, rhodium is extremely rare . . . and extremely valuable. It is a precious metal. And “precious” is the right word, because rhodium is trading today at $10,750.00 on the London Fix. That’s significantly more than the current trading prices of gold ($1,798.00) or even platinum ($1,011.00). But there’s a lot more you should know about rhodium too – information that can help you refine this “other” precious metal for quite a lot of money.

Here’s a primer of useful information about rhodium.

Read and Learn from Our Most Popular Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners Blog Posts Published in 2022

As 2023 kicks off, we would like to share a list of the most popular, most-read posts that we have published in the last year. 

Thank you, readers, for making our blog one of the top-performing, most often-read advisories in the precious metal industry. 

A 1948 Packard weighed about 3,800 pounds when it rolled off the assembly line. No wonder. It was powered by a straight eight motor that was about the size of a refrigerator. A 1948 Lincoln Continental, which was powered by a V-12 engine, weighed about 4,000 pounds. 

What do cars weigh today?

Where should you invest in 2023? You have a lot of options, of course, including stocks, mutual funds, municipal bonds. But if you are looking for investments that will produce an above-average return on the dollars you invest, you need look no further than these choices . . . 

In the world of gaming, old consoles and controllers quickly become obsolete. The result is that the old gaming equipment you have lying around can be a good source of gold you can recycle. The trick is knowing where to look. 

Christmas always brings a lot of new presents into my house. It’s a great time of year. 

But while I was shopping this week, I started to think about some of the presents I got in years past. Some of them are still in their original boxes, unopened! Wouldn’t this be a great time to pull those old presents out and decide to start using them now and if not, whether to sell them. 

It could also be a time to remove printed circuit boards from some of them and reclaim the gold and silver they contain. Maybe you are like me and have old items lying around that could contain precious metals that can be removed and recycled profitably. 

Is there a precious metal investor on your holiday shopping list?

If so, we have some great gift suggestions for you. 

If you are a regular reader of the Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners blog, you will remember that we published some gift suggestions just a year ago to help you with your 2021 holiday shopping. For today’s post, we have revisited some of those gift suggestions and we are updating our list to reflect the fact that some prices for these gifts have fallen and some great new gift items have just been introduced.