Palladium has been an underrated precious metal for the longest time. However, for the last few years, its price has gone up like crazy, especially since the pandemic. For this reason, this often-overlooked precious metal has caught the eye of many investors, and palladium recycling became a growing trend.
Gold and silver are the first precious metals that most people think of when they think of the most valuable precious metals. However, the value of this unusual metal that has risen over the last months has now surpassed that of gold, calling the attention of many people, among them recyclers. And that is because as palladium prices continue to increase, scrap metal recyclers are willing to buy palladium scrap at top price.
Recycling palladium is important for the environment and also because, like all the other precious metals, it is a finite resource. Obtaining palladium from mining is not so common, which makes it a rare metal, and is often found and a side product of the mining process of metals like platinum and nickel. Here are some other facts about platinum that you might not know:
- Palladium can be found in a variety of products. If you have “white gold” goods, for example, chances are strong that they are constructed of a gold-palladium alloy – and that the palladium can be recovered by a qualified palladium refiner like “Core Scientific.” Furthermore, some jewelry items that appear to be platinum are actually palladium. This was common practice in the years leading up to World War II, when the United States government limited the use of platinum to military purposes.
- Palladium has been misinterpreted nearly since its discovery in 1802 by William Hyde Wollaston, a British physicist. Others questioned his “finding,” claiming it was actually a platinum-mercury alloy. Wollaston’s new metal took years to be recognized and classified as an element with the symbol Pd and the atomic number 46.
- Palladium is a rare metal that is often imported from other countries. South Africa, Russia, Ontario, and Montana have the most extensive deposits.
Now going back to palladium recycling, there is a line of recycling that is often overlooked and underexploited, and that is cremation recycling. This is also a new concept that has taken off in the last few years, but metal recycling services also comprehend a large part of cremation, legally and environmentally.
If you never heard about post-cremation palladium recycling, you are possibly scratching your head after hearing about it. But, a crematory that performs roughly 300 cremations annually can generate several hundred pounds of metal from medical and dental prosthetics, and they find not only palladium but also gold, silver, platinum, and non-precious metals like titanium.
The proper way to handle this metal is to have it recycled. Neither precious nor non-precious metals are biodegradable, so throwing them out means they end up in a landfill. Additionally, being the green option, it’s also the legal option.
The practice of burying post-cremation metals in cemeteries is obsolete and potentially harmful to the environment. The need of cooperating with a good metal refiner has grown as green burial rates have climbed. By providing storage, automated shipment, and equipment, a good refiner may assist funeral directors in efficiently handle growing post-cremation metal volumes.The best precious metal refinery in the US is Core Scientific, which specialized in cremation recycling. They offer a top-of-the-game service with their superior processing and assay technologies, and their 100% transparency policy allows them to consistently provide the highest profits.
