In the world of precious metals, accuracy is paramount. Whether you're a seasoned investor or a newcomer to the industry, the quest for precise readings on metal composition can be fraught with challenges. One such hurdle comes in the form of X-ray guns, which, while widely used, may not always deliver the accuracy you need.

Items that contain the most gold by weight are those that are made from 24-karat gold or are as close to pure gold as possible. However, these items might not be very common due to the softness of pure gold. (Pure gold is 24 karats, but it's very soft and malleable, making it less suitable for jewelry that needs to withstand daily wear.)

Gold is all around us. It’s in the jewelry we don’t wear anymore, in the old cellphones that are gathering dust in our homes, and of course, in our cars. 

But just because gold is present doesn’t always mean it is worth recycling, for one of these reasons:

If you need a little motivation to get out there to hunt for precious metal scrap and treasure, we have some books for you to read. 

Treasure hunting has captured the imagination of readers for centuries, and there are a lot of notable books that delve into this thrilling and adventurous subject. 

If you could use a little motivation to get up, get out, and look for gold and other scrap, here are some of the greatest motivational books on treasure hunting ever written:

You find an old painting in an antique shop and notice that gold seems to be part of it. The gold could be gold leaf that has been applied to the painting itself, or to the frame.

But how much gold is there, and is it worth buying that painting in the hopes that you can reclaim and recycle it for a lot of money?

It could be, but here are some things to think about before you buy that painting, hoping to make a nice profit from your investment.

We have written on this blog that gold can be reclaimed from electronic devices such as computers, computer tablets, smartphones, and even remote controls that came bundled with televisions and other devices commonly found in the home. It seems that gold is waiting to be reclaimed in almost any kind of electronic device you find. 

Most small companies are run by businessmen and businesswomen who are committed to doing business honestly. Even if you have a dispute with them or they have done something that strikes you as less than honorable, they are likely to try to “make things right.” After all, they want to maintain a good reputation and avoid getting negative reviews online.

If you are considering selling gold to a gold recycler or having them extract gold from scrap you own, here are some important questions you should ask:

“Eureka! After California’s Heavy Rains, Gold Seekers Are Giddy,” an article that Thomas Fuller published in The New York Times on April 22, 2023, reports that the recent heavy rains in California have caused a lot of gold to wash into streams in the state. He profiles one prospector who pulled $100 worth of gold out of a stream after only 20 minutes of hunting. That’s a pretty impressive haul.

People tend to think that recovering the gold from gold scrap is a straightforward process. You heat the scrap to a high temperature and then collect the gold that was in it, right?

Well, it’s not that simple. Recycling gold scrap can also be a complex process, and there are several mistakes that can reduce both the quality and the quantity of gold that is obtained during recycling.

Precious metal refining companies specialize in the extraction and purification of precious metals, such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, from raw materials such as ore, electronic waste, and scrap metal.

Many people believe that Archimedes (c. 287 – c. 212 BC), the Greek mathematician and scientist, invented the karat system of classifying the purity of gold that is still used today. Although he was an historically important astronomer, engineer, inventor, and mathematician, he didn’t!

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.

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. 

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?

If you search for “class rings” on eBay, you are going to find a lot of them for sale. There are old high school rings and old college rings. And if you visit a junk shop, an antique store or even a pawnshop, chances are you will find class rings for sale in them too. Why? There are a lot of reasons. Sometimes when people need cash, an old school ring is the first thing they think of selling. And then there is the unfortunate fact that when people pass away, their heirs often end up with the deceased person’s valuables, which often include a class ring or two.

“Global Precious Metal Market to Grow at a CAGR of 8.1%, during Forecast Period,” a report that BlueWeave Consulting published on September 6, 2022, makes some very encouraging observations about the strength of the market for precious metals.

Here's what the report has to say about coming growth in the Compound Aggregate Growth Rate (CAGR) for precious metals: