How to Make Money Recycling Precious Metals From Wire

Written By Barry Lenson

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

Wire is just about everywhere:

  • In buildings

  • In cars and all vehicles

  • In computers and all electronic devices

  • In appliances, including washers, dryers, stoves, and air conditioners

  • In medical scrap, especially and used testing supplies

Why It Is Hard to Recognize Wire that Contains Precious Metal

The biggest obstacle is that most wire is wrapped in plastic or other insulation, making it hard to get a visual reading on what the wire is.

The easiest way to expose the metal inside the wire is to simply pull off the insulation. However, if you are dealing with a jumbled mass of wire, it can take an awfully long time to remove all the insulation. You can also burn off the insulation or, in some cases, remove it by submerging the wire in a bath of hydrochloric or other acids.

Our advice? Select a sample and pull off the insulation to determine whether the wire inside is made of copper. If you are not sure what metals are present, call our precious metal recycling experts at 800-426-2344 for advice.

When Recycling Wire, You Are Going to Find a Lot of Copper

Chances are that copper will represent at least 95% of the metal that you will recover from wire scrap.

Although copper is not a precious metal, it is currently selling for about $4.50/pound. That’s not chump change by any measure. Please note that Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners does not buy copper, but you can find a scrap metal dealer in your area that will.

Why Thermocouples Are Valuable

To learn why thermocouple wires are potentially valuable, read “How to Make Big Dollars by Collecting Thermocouples,” a post we published on this blog in 2019.

To review what we wrote in that post, thermocouple wire, which is made of at least two different metals, is used to either monitor or control temperatures remotely. If you own a factory where ceramics are manufactured at high temperatures on a production line, for example, you can’t stick a thermometer there to keep track of how hot things are. But you can put a sensor there and run a thermocouple wire from it to a measuring device that is located some distance away from where the high heat is.

Thermocouple wire can also be run to remote devices that control temperatures. One common example? A thermostat that is used to control the temperature in your kitchen oven; a thermocouple wire runs from the interior of your oven to the stove’s control panel and when the temperature reaches the level you have set, the heating elements in the oven shut down.

You can find thermocouples in:

  • Air conditioners – both window units and central systems

  • Coffee makers

  • Cutoff switches

  • Electrical space heaters

  • Fire alarms and monitoring systems

  • Furnaces

  • Kilns

  • Medical testing and monitoring equipment

  • Remote thermometers

  • Stoves

  • Water heaters

Wires from Used and Unused Medical Testing Devices Are Valuable Too

Catheters that were used to perform diagnostic tests, especially cardiac tests, can contain platinum, cadmium, as well as other precious metals.

Where can you find them? The best source is stocks of unused, obsolete testing supplies that hospitals might have on hand. Often, the suppliers of these items have agreements in place with hospitals to accept returns on these materials. But you can still contact hospitals in your area to inquire about unused testing supplies.

And here’s another tip. Veterinarian’s offices can have unused testing supplies on hand too, because vets today are now conducting cardiac and other diagnostic tests on pets – the same kind of expensive tests that until recently were only performed on humans.

Pay Attention to the Ends of the Wires You Find!

The connectors you will find on the ends of wire scrap – even copper wire – can contain silver and, in the case of medical testing wires, cadmium, and even platinum.

Want to know more about what your scrap is worth? Simply give us a call at 800-426-2344 for some expert advice. Our consultants can explain how we can test your scrap, reclaim the precious metals it contains, and pay you promptly at current trading prices.

Barry Lenson
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