As you create beautiful pieces of jewelry for your customers, you also generate metal dust and scrap. Precious metals including gold, silver, platinum, and palladium collect little by little on the workbench, floors, rugs, and other spaces around your shop. This may include everything from karat gold to bench grindings and filings to polishing dust. While it may seem like this jewelry scrap isn’t worth much, believe us…it is! Best of all, it’s as easy as ABC to collect and cash in on all that scrap metal. Here’s a quick primer on how to effortlessly capture additional profit for your jewelry business.

Accumulate

It’s easier than you may think to collect and profit from your jewelry scrap by sending it to a refinery that specializes in handling your materials. All it takes is:

3 Basic Items

  • Metal-lined catch tray
  • Collection jar(s)
  • Sweeps bag or barrel

And A Simple Plan

Your work area and equipment are all sources of metal dust and scrap. Here’s how to capture this precious material from each area or item:

Workbench

Use a metal-lined catch tray (built-in if possible) to capture precious metal dust, filings and scrap while you work. Sweeps and filings from the bench are considered a higher grade of precious metal scrap than other “waste” materials, and should be transferred from the catch tray to a collection jar on a regular basis. Noble Metal provides its customers with complimentary collection jars for this purpose. TIP: Use a small paintbrush to “sweep” dust and filings into your collection jar.

Tools of the Trade

Polishing mops, work aprons, emery paper, and other tools you use on precious metal jewelry can be collected by placing them into a sweeps container once they’re spent. This can be a sturdy garbage bag, a plastic bucket from your local hardware store, or a collection barrel from your refiner. Noble Metal offers complimentary collection barrels upon request.

Vacuum Bags & Wipes

Use a dedicated vacuum for cleaning up around your shop. And don’t throw away those vacuum bags and cleaning wipes! Instead, throw them into your sweeps container. They are an often overlooked source of precious metal dust and filings.

Rugs & Carpet

A LOT of metal dust and filings can collect in the carpet in your shop over time. Whether you use carpet tiles, rugs or floor mats, don’t ignore this potential source of profit. When you’re ready to replace your old flooring, be sure to put it in your sweeps container.

 Hard-Surface Flooring

Instead of using a standard mop to clean your floor, use one that utilizes moistened disposable pads (like Swiffer). Once you’re done cleaning up, simply toss the pads into the sweeps bag.

Box Up

When your collection jar and/or sweeps container are full, send them in to a reputable refiner for processing. At Noble Metal, we make it easy for our customers to box up their jewelry scrap material and send it in by providing complimentary shipping labels and/or packaging upon request.

Cash In

Your refinery will determine the value of your scrap metal by measuring the weight and purity of the materials, and calculating payment using the current spot price for each precious metal in the lot. To get an estimate of the value of your materials, feel free to use our Gold Calculator. Your final settlement price will be based on the actual melt and assay results of your metal lot. Noble offers flexible payout options including payment in 24 karat gold, gold or silver bullion products, ACH or wire transfer, or by check or e-check.

It couldn’t be easier to make the most of your scrap metal materials. So if you’re not already doing it, be sure to Accumulate, Box Up and Cash In on yours starting today!