Calling all Metal-Heads!!!

[Barrettone]

All right folks, I have to ask for the GIM brain trust to help me out in my hour of need!!! Surely, this group will be able to help...

I have just landed my dream job as a purchasing rep. for my local scrap dealer. He deals in anything that makes $$$. Iron and copper of course, but I am looking to score some serious tonnage (he is a HUGE outfit with a LOT of capacity right off a rail line). I get a base salary plus commission/expenses, so I need your help. Of course, auctions with big electric motors (copper) and demolition of large buildings comes to mind. Other things I have been looking at is the surplus shipping containers available that companies may wish to cull if they are in marginal condition for their scrap value rather than paying to yard them due to the fact that there is little shipping going on (see: http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,641513,00.html). Ditto for railroad cars/containers. Might be some cash 4 clunker stuff still out there, but I think I missed the boat on that one. I am also looking into some of these metals (and sources) since China is looking to ban and/or lessen export on them in the near future (see: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/6082464/World-faces-hi-tech-crunch-as-China-eyes-ban-on-rare-metal-exports.html):

terbium
dysprosium
yttrium
thulium
lutetium
neodymium
europium
cerium
lanthanum

I am basically looking for advice from all of you regarding things YOU would look for if you were a scrapper and what would get you the highest yield of scrap/base metals/rare earth metals/etc...

Thanks, and I'm looking forward to all your replies!!!

[AGRO]

Ag_man, will know about these obscure metals and a few others..

[AGRO]

BTW, you should be looking for CATs.

[jedemdasseine]

Try sending some emails to the good folks at http://www.resourceinvestor.com

[jedemdasseine]

Cats are where the money is.

I'll see if I can dig up what China's after. I have a friend in the metals business who's coming back from Guangzhou soon.

[ruprick]

I sent you a PM.....I have some ideas.

[Ag_man]

First of all, you need good intelligence. Subscribe now to Ryan's Notes, American Metal Markets and Iron Age. Yeah, they're expensive, but essential! I'll do some thinking about this and get back to the thread.

Congrats on your venture, sounds like something I would like to get into at some time.

[Ag_man]

A bit of advise on ferrous materials (my area of semi-expertise :wink: ). When looking at stuff like shipping containers, bridges, etc; know your market when it comes to sizing (6' and under, 3' and under, etc). The skill comes in to figure the balance between your optimum sell prices to the mills and your cutting costs. The key is to really know what your cutting and transport costs are.

I had a buddy that managed industrial scrapping of several installations in Venezuela (pre-Chavez days). His company severely underestimated the real costs of the demolition and lost their ass.

Of of the easier (IMO) deals are to turn over every rock with stamping plants. Buying punchings from stampers and selling to mills has the lowest labor and material costs, but is a very competitive business with regard to buy/sell pricing. Again, know your markets! It's a rough and tumble world.

[Barrettone]

Man guys...you are the greatest!!! Keep the advice coming!!! I'm all ears.


Jeff

[Tallships]

I read of one woman (years back) who bought a street sweeper and would go out early in the morning and sweep heavily traveled areas. then she would pan platinum dust (just like panning gold) out of the debris she picked up. I think she was getting about 900$ a week worth of platinum dust belched out by catalytic converters. I also think her city screwed her claiming the dust was their property or something.

[Tallships]

A tonne of cell phones contains more gold than a tonne of ore from a typical gold mine. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUST13528020080427) An average gold mine produces 5 grams of gold per tonne of rock whereas cell phones contain 150 grams or more per tonne. In addition a tonne of cell phones contains 100 kg of copper and 3 kg of silver, as well as other valuable metals—all of which have been soaring in price.
The quantity of precious metals to be found in discarded electric devices has led to a new phenomenon—urban mining—which seeks to recover these increasingly valuable resources before they are sent to a landfill. The company Eco-Systems in Japan—which has few natural resources—is trying to recover these precious metals from the tens of millions of cell phones and other electronic gadgets that are thrown away every year. Says Nozumo Yamanaka, manager of Eco-Systems, “To some it’s a mountain of garbage, but for others it’s a gold mine.”
Hazel Prichard, (http://www.oilempire.us/peak-minerals.html) a geologist at the University of Cardiff, is working on ways to collect platinum—which comes off of catalytic converters in cars—from the dust that is collected by street sweepers. "I get excited every time I see a street cleaner," she says. Platinum is a vital component not only of catalytic converters but also of fuel cells - and
supplies are running out. It has been estimated that if all the 500 million vehicles in use today were re-equipped with fuel cells, all the world's sources of platinum would be exhausted within 15 years.
The same goes for many other rare metals such as indium, which is being consumed in unprecedented quantities for making LCDs for flat-screen TVs, and the tantalum needed to make compact electronic devices like cell phones.
The metal gallium, which along with indium is used to make indium gallium arsenide, is the semi-conducting material at the heart of a new generation of solar cells that promise to be up to twice as efficient as conventional designs.
That is why the efforts of people like Hazel Prichard to find ways to urban mine these precious metals is of vital importance to any technological fix for the looming problems of peak oil and global warming.



http://greenfuture.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

[Heimdhal]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC6CPwu0I44


:RockOn:








Oh, not THAT kind of metal...sorry. :signs14:

[Barrettone]

BTW, you should be looking for CATs.

Roger that...on the list now!!!

Thanks

[Barrettone]

Cats are where the money is.

I'll see if I can dig up what China's after. I have a friend in the metals business who's coming back from Guangzhou soon.

COOL!!!!!

Thanks!!!

[Barrettone]

First of all, you need good intelligence. Subscribe now to Ryan's Notes, American Metal Markets and Iron Age. Yeah, they're expensive, but essential! I'll do some thinking about this and get back to the thread.

Congrats on your venture, sounds like something I would like to get into at some time.


Will do!!!!

[Barrettone]

A bit of advise on ferrous materials (my area of semi-expertise :wink: ). When looking at stuff like shipping containers, bridges, etc; know your market when it comes to sizing (6' and under, 3' and under, etc). The skill comes in to figure the balance between your optimum sell prices to the mills and your cutting costs. The key is to really know what your cutting and transport costs are.

I had a buddy that managed industrial scrapping of several installations in Venezuela (pre-Chavez days). His company severely underestimated the real costs of the demolition and lost their ass.

Of of the easier (IMO) deals are to turn over every rock with stamping plants. Buying punchings from stampers and selling to mills has the lowest labor and material costs, but is a very competitive business with regard to buy/sell pricing. Again, know your markets! It's a rough and tumble world.

Good stuff here as well...

[Barrettone]

A tonne of cell phones contains more gold than a tonne of ore from a typical gold mine. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUST13528020080427) An average gold mine produces 5 grams of gold per tonne of rock whereas cell phones contain 150 grams or more per tonne. In addition a tonne of cell phones contains 100 kg of copper and 3 kg of silver, as well as other valuable metals—all of which have been soaring in price.
The quantity of precious metals to be found in discarded electric devices has led to a new phenomenon—urban mining—which seeks to recover these increasingly valuable resources before they are sent to a landfill. The company Eco-Systems in Japan—which has few natural resources—is trying to recover these precious metals from the tens of millions of cell phones and other electronic gadgets that are thrown away every year. Says Nozumo Yamanaka, manager of Eco-Systems, “To some it’s a mountain of garbage, but for others it’s a gold mine.”
Hazel Prichard, (http://www.oilempire.us/peak-minerals.html) a geologist at the University of Cardiff, is working on ways to collect platinum—which comes off of catalytic converters in cars—from the dust that is collected by street sweepers. "I get excited every time I see a street cleaner," she says. Platinum is a vital component not only of catalytic converters but also of fuel cells - and
supplies are running out. It has been estimated that if all the 500 million vehicles in use today were re-equipped with fuel cells, all the world's sources of platinum would be exhausted within 15 years.
The same goes for many other rare metals such as indium, which is being consumed in unprecedented quantities for making LCDs for flat-screen TVs, and the tantalum needed to make compact electronic devices like cell phones.
The metal gallium, which along with indium is used to make indium gallium arsenide, is the semi-conducting material at the heart of a new generation of solar cells that promise to be up to twice as efficient as conventional designs.
That is why the efforts of people like Hazel Prichard to find ways to urban mine these precious metals is of vital importance to any technological fix for the looming problems of peak oil and global warming.



http://greenfuture.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

Good to know...especially your other post about the street sweeping...

[Bruce7trader]

After reading so much call it crap or whatever seems i have become what you are. How can one become normal again or so called normal to not be noticed in the system. I'm starting to realize it's getting harder not to be identified as a Gold Bug. Maybe people think i live in a basement with no windows but acatually i'm out and about the world everyday early to late but i can now set myself apart from what seems to be normal.

Do i need a Doctor or am i just too much into truth?

Second question is do i sell the pile of scrap copper in my back yard and buy Gold coin or just keep the copper? This is back in Canada!

B7T:565:

[Bruce7trader]

I just looked at the list of Made in Canada Cars. After this view i believe the Canadian side of the Auto MFG should be closed as these are the wost looking cars i have ever seen. Ill stay with some older of the same brands and be happy to send these new cars to the crushers. So bad hard to look at..

I don't want to promote Canada MFG cars even i love the small amount of metal they consume...The cars are just too ugly..

B7T

Go Zinc go!!!:565: