What is precious metal scrap

Precious metal scrap is basically any discarded or leftover material that contains valuable metals like gold, silver, platinum, palladium, or rhodium. Think of it as the stuff that’s no longer useful in its current form but still has worth because of the metals inside. It comes from all sorts of places — old jewelry, electronics, car parts, industrial leftovers, you name it.

For example, a busted catalytic converter from a car is scrap because it’s got tiny amounts of platinum, palladium, or rhodium baked into it. Same goes for a pile of outdated smartphones — they’ve got gold and silver in their circuits. Even dental fillings or lab equipment can count if they’ve got precious metals. The idea is that these items are past their prime, but the metals can be extracted, refined, and reused.

The scrap gets collected, sorted, and processed by recyclers who melt it down or chemically strip out the good stuff. It’s a big deal because it’s cheaper and greener than mining new metal from the earth, plus it keeps rare resources in circulation. So, precious metal scrap is like a hidden treasure in the junk pile — worthless as-is, but valuable once you pull out the shiny bits.

Anything specific about scrap you’re curious about? Like how they process it or what it’s worth?