Platinum, silver, and gold wire are most often found among the supplies at companies that make or repair jewelry, such as jewelry stores and jewelry factories. 

Where will you find those precious-metal wires in those facilities?

• As part of generalized scrap, like bench and floor sweepings. 

• In jewelry-making supplies. Often, wire will still be rolled up on spools of unused materials.

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. 

Platinum wire can turn up just about anywhere where platinum was used in manufacturing. Even though it doesn’t look valuable to the casual observer, it could be. So, if you find bright, shiny white wire... 

Recycling precious metals often involves analyzing and refining big messy batches of mixed materials. People who own these mixed lots of material know that gold or silver or platinum is “in there” somewhere, but don’t know where it is, what it is, or how much of it is present. 

If you’re emptying an old factory that produced products that contained metals, chances are good that you will discover wire that contains precious metals.  You might find coils of it in storage areas. You might find little rolls of it hiding in drawers. Unless the previous owners labeled their supplies carefully or the wire is still in its original packaging, you have very little way of knowing what kind of wire you have.