Recycling platinum and platinum scrap is not a job for hobbyists. Some potential risks include:

With platinum trading for $1,400/Troy Ounce today, it is well worth looking for it in unusual places. Even a small amount of certain kinds of scrap that will fit in a shoebox or in your pocket could bring you a much bigger profit than you expected.

Recycling platinum scrap requires expertise, skill, and the right equipment. It is a complex process, and there are several mistakes your refinery can make that can cost you money. 

Why can these errors cost you money? It can happen in two ways . . . First, the quality of the platinum that is obtained by the recycling company could be adversely affected. And second, the quantity of platinum obtained could be reduced. (In other words, some platinum is lost during the process of extraction.)

If you go looking for gold or silver deposits outdoors, chances are good you will find small quantities of those precious metals. All you need is a metal detector, a gold panning kit or machinery, or other basic equipment. You might not find a tremendous amount of those metals during a typical day of prospecting. But you will find something – often enough to make your day of hunting worthwhile.

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.

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. 

A recent article in Metals Focus points out that demand for platinum, palladium and rhodium (all platinum group metals) grew 5% in 2021 and is expected to hit a record 11% increase in 2022 alone.

What is causing the surge?

Metals Focus points to these two trends:

Whether you have bought beef, gasoline, milk, or home appliances lately, you already know that prices are going up. Inflation is very much in the news. But what effect will it have on the trading prices of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and other precious metals?

Without thinking, many people throw away old items that contain precious metals that can be reclaimed for dollars – often, for a lot of dollars.

Sometimes they toss precious metals when they do home upgrades or repairs. Sometimes they do when they have their cars repaired.

We want you to make money when you invest in precious metals.

Why? One reason is that if we can help you make money by using our testing and recycling processes, we will make more money too. But that isn’t the most important reason. The most important reason we want you to do well and make money is that we want to support you. Also, the more successful you become as a precious metal investor, the better it is for our entire business sector. That’s another way of saying that when more people make more money, everyone in the universe of precious metal investing benefits.

From Blackberry to iPhone and Beyond . . .

Scientists and lay people (otherwise known as “the men and women in the street”) love to predict the death of precious metals. They like to believe that gold, silver and platinum will lose value because they will be replaced by other materials and other chemicals in a lot of devices and applications.

“Isn’t the pandemic creating a lot of demand for precious metals,” a caller asked us recently. “Gold, silver and platinum and even cadmium are used in medical devices and medications, and isn’t the demand for those things increasing because of the pandemic?”

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.

“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.

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.

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.

We are writing today about fuel cell cars for a very simple reason . . .

The fuel cells that are found in hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars contain platinum, and could become an important source of platinum for smart investors in platinum scrap

Yet currently, only two fuel cell-powered passenger cars are available for sale in the United States:

If you do a search online for “fuel cell cars” or “hydrogen-powered cars,” you will be surprised to learn that strictly speaking, fuel cell cars are not a brand new idea. They have been around for longer than you might expect and have been manufactured for about 20 years. Incidentally, fuel cells that generate electrical current have been around for nearly 200 years. It’s not exactly a new technology.

Some people believe they need metal detectors to find precious metals. Other people use drones. And still others think they need precious metal testing kits.

Those people are right. But today, we would like to remind you of another very basic fact that can help you find more precious metals . . .