Metallix Direct Gold Blog

Businesses: A Wealth of Opportunities to Sell Scrap Precious Metals

Tweet

 

There is a world of opportunity for businesses to capitalize on their gold, silver, platinum, palladium & rhodium bearing scrap materials for additional profit. The trick is to uncover the opportunities, and determine where to send the scrap.

Precious metal refineries purchase gold, silver, platinum, palladium, & rhodium bearing scrap materials from a variety of industries. Theses precious metals are recycled and refined back to their pure state so they can be re-sold into the marketplace where investors can buy them or industrial fabricators can re-use them again in their products.

Most refineries have a minimum amount of scrap precious metals that they accept. Because of this, many small businesses, or even larger businesses with a small amount of scrap precious metals, find it challenging to locate a refinery that will accept the smaller amount of scrap they have onsite. This can force companies to hold onto their scrap until they have enough supply to sell, or merely throw them away, resulting in more waste.

So if you are in possession of small quantities of precious metals scrap materials look for a company that specializes in purchasing small batches of precious metals so you are assured of good service. Some common types of industries that result in precious metal scrap include:

Jewelry Industry

Small jewelry manufacturers, repair shops, retailers and wholesalers should save any of their gold, silver, or platinum scrap materials including, filings, bench sweeps, polishings, trade-ins, or stock that didn’t sell.  Small amounts of these scrap materials may seem meaningless, but due to the very high price of precious metals they could add up to a nice payout.

Dentistry

Dentists are always replacing crowns, bridges and fillings, which are frequently made of gold (often anywhere from 10 to 22 karat), or alloyed gold for silver-colored materials. Precious-metals-buying companies present dentists with a great opportunity to sell their gold dental scrap for profit that would otherwise be thrown away.

Automobile Recycling

Metals from the platinum group of precious metals, including platinum, palladium and rhodium, are the primary metals used in catalytic convertors in automobiles and other machines with engines because of their durability and pollution control characteristics. Small businesses that recycle automobile parts can consider selling catalytic convertors as means to reduce waste and earn additional profit.

Electronics

The electronics industry is a very broad term and encompasses many sub industries such as, but not limited to, electronic connectors, stampings, switches, semiconductors and electroplaters. Many companies within these industries use precious metals in the products they manufacture due to for their electrical properties and resistance to corrosion. The scrap by-product produced by the manufacturing process can be contaminated with these expensive precious metals making the scrap extremely valuable.

Solar Energy

Silver is used as a catalyst in the development of solar cells because of its ability to generate power and boost efficiency of a solar cell. Silver as a precious metal is now worth over $20 per troy ounce, so it is extremely beneficial for solar companies to sell scrap materials so that they can recoup some of their cost and the silver can be recycled and reused.

Medical Devices

Another source of scrap precious metals, specifically platinum, is medical device manufacturers. Precious metals are used in stents, marker bands for angioplasty devices, pacemaker wire, endoscopy tips and special surgical tools. Platinum is most commonly used because of its resistance to corrosion and high temperatures, and it is a non-toxic metal.

Glass Companies

Glass manufacturing provides an exceptional supply of scrap platinum and platinum group metals. These metals are particularly desirable because of their high melting points and superior resistance to corrosion. This makes them extremely beneficial for glass manufacturing as they protect manufacturing equipment, including thermocouples, furnace and forehearth parts, from attack by molten glass and corrosive vapors.

One man’s trash…

While this post provided a snapshot of industries that utilize precious metals for their various products, there are a wide variety of other industries and companies that do as well. Businesses in these industries who may have previously thrown away their scrap metal, or stored excess scrap until a large quantity was achieved, can now consider additional options to not only earn additional income, but also benefit the environment.

Companies that purchase scrap gold and other precious metals from the public can provide an excellent solution to businesses. Contact a trusted “we buy gold” company to begin the selling process for your company.

 Does your company utilize precious metals as part of the manufacturing process? Tell us about it in the comments section.

Connect with Metallix Direct Gold on Facebook and Twitter.

Subscribe to the Metallix Direct Gold Blog via email or RSS.

Sources:

Platinum Group Metals in Glass Making 

Wikipedia: Platinum

Materials Engineering: Little-known facts about precious metals

How to Sell Scrap Gold Dental

How to Reclaim Precious Metals from Computers and Sell as Scrap