The high value of gold this year has seen a flood of old, broken and stored pieces made from the precious metal coming back on to the market.
India, where the government has been pushing people to recycle their old gold to cut down on the need for expensive imports, has really seen recycling rocket in 2016.
The country, the second biggest gold importer in the world after China, has experienced such a surge in gold recycling over the summer that it has met 45-60 per cent of demand for the precious metal through recycling, according to the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation.
Figures from Commerzbank show that India’s August gold imports stood at 26 tonnes, a fall of 81 per cent compared to the same month last year. Over the first half of 2016, the country imported around half the amount of gold it did in the same period last year.
Bachhraj Bamawla, director of the Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation, told the Wall Street Journal: "At this price, the recycled market will continue. Wedding and festival season is approaching, but the price of gold is a deterrent to demand. Rather, people will sell at these prices. If there is no Indian demand, prices may fall."
It’s estimated that Indian homes and temples have a phenomenal 22,000 tonnes of gold stored in them, and it’s this unwanted gold that the Indian government wants people to part with.
The demand for gold is so high in India because people tend to buy it during festivals from September to November, and again during the wedding season that follows.
Shalini Goel was able to exchange a necklace and bracelets for almost 15 times as much as she paid for them, thanks to the good gold price.
We can’t promise you’ll get such a high return for your old broken and unwanted gold jewellery when you send it in for recycling, but it’s likely you’ll be pleasantly surprised by its value in the current market.
A team of Scottish scientists have come up with an effective way of stripping gold out of old computer and smartphone circuit boards.
The University of Edinburgh scientists are aiming to stop gold being sent to landfill by developing a more effective method of recovering it from old electronic circuits. They’ve come up with a mild acid that dissolves all metal parts in the circuit boards and when their specially developed chemical compound is added, they can isolate and recover the gold content.
It’s believed up to seven per cent of the world’s gold stores is inside e-waste such as old phones, PCs and laptops that have been thrown away. The demand for gold for this market is only set to increase as the popularity of smartphones, tablets and laptops shows no sign of diminishing and companies are continually developing newer and better versions of their products.
Around 12 per cent of the world’s gold was being used in electronic gadgets back in 2013, the most recent year there are figures available for. It’s likely the percentage has increased in the three years since.
The team from Edinburgh University’s new extraction method is non-toxic so it ticks the environmentally-friendly boxes too. One of the big issues about gold mining is the cost to the environment, due to the chemicals that are used in getting the precious metals out.
Prof Jason Love from Edinburgh University said: “We are very excited about this discovery, especially as we have shown that our fundamental chemical studies on the recovery of valuable metals from electronic waste could have potential economic and societal benefits.”
Every time you recycle a piece of old, broken or unwanted gold jewellery, you are playing a part in helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the gold industry by making more of the precious metal available to use again. It’s a win-win situation for you …. and the environment.
The Rio Olympics may only just be over but medal-makers’ thoughts are already turning to where they will source the gold for the next Games in 2020.
The organisers of the Tokyo Games in four years’ time are looking to use recycled gold to make the medals for the Olympics and Paralympics and have already started to talk about sourcing the precious metal.
They’re aiming to use gold, silver and copper recovered from old mobile phones and computers to make the medals, rather than asking mining companies – which is the usual practice – to donate towards them.
Although gold and silver Olympic medals only contain a small proportion of the precious metals and are not solid gold or silver, this will be the first time that an Olympic Games has gone all out to make ‘sustainable’ medals.
Japan has a great international reputation for recycling and it’s reported that around 16 per cent of the world’s recycled gold come from precious metal recovered from electronic appliances in the country, while the same practice accounts for approximately 22 per cent of global recycled silver reserves.
In 2014, 315lbs of gold and 3,452lbs of silver was collected from electronic appliances in Japan. That would be ample to create the medals for the Tokyo Games – in the London 2012 Olympics, 21lbs of gold and 2,667lbs of silver were used to create the medals, according to Fox News.
Although much of the unwanted, broken or scrap gold and silver that we recycle goes back into making jewellery, the electronics business is also a large user of the precious metals in its circuitry.
So when you convert your old gold and silver jewellery into cash, some of it may actually end up hanging around the neck of proud Olympic medal winners in Tokyo in four years’ time.
When you convert your old, broken and unwanted gold jewellery into cash, you’re also going a long way to helping other people reach their dreams.
Dozens of British jewellers now have ethical gold policies and they are becoming increasingly important to brides and grooms. There is a growth in demand for wedding bands that have been made with gold that hasn’t harmed the environment during the mining process or hasn’t come from conflict zones.
In many cases, when people are buying new jewellery, they don’t know where the precious metal it contains came from. It could be a mixture of newly mined gold, off-cuts from other items made in the workshop or recycled gold made from old jewellery.
However, you can check with jewellers whether they have a policy to use recycled gold and indeed, many promote the fact they do to attract eco-conscious shoppers. In addition to recycled gold, some now offer Fairtrade gold, a certification which was introduced in 2011, which guarantees that the metal has been mined responsibly by artisan workers. This is generally a more expensive option, though, and you are likely to pay a premium on top of the price of your jewellery.
One of gold’s many benefits is that it can be repeatedly recycled without ever losing any of its quality and value. The old chains, rings and earrings that you send in to be recycled may themselves have been made from gold that was something else in a previous life. There is no telling how many times a piece has been melted down and turned into something new.
It’s fascinating to think that the old gold jewellery you’re planning to recycle may have been through so many incarnations before it was crafted into the piece you’re now selling. And it’s just as interesting to wonder where it may now end up as its continues its story.
Selling your broken, old or unwanted gold jewellery to convert to cash is actually pretty straightforward. We’re based in Birmingham’s famous jewellery quarter, but you don’t need to travel to the shop to complete the transaction: it can all be done by post.
When you’re selling gold items, remember to make sure you deal with a reputable company with a solid track record. There is always an element of trust when you are sending precious items by post but with Scrap Gold, you can be assured on a number of levels.
We are a long-established family-run business that is a member of the British Jewellery Association and the Gold Standard Scheme. What’s more, because we are a bricks and mortar business as well as having an online presence, you have an additional level of security.
Selling your unwanted gold pieces is an easy process. We have an online guide and form http://www.scrapgolduk.co.uk/form to fill out with information about the pieces you are sending, their estimated weight and value.
You can check the current scrap gold price live on our website. This is the value of gold per troy ounce – the unit of measurement used when dealing with gold.
The price of gold has been soaring this year because of its value as an investment product. However, remember to check the scrap gold rather than the gold price to find out how much you’re likely to receive. This is always lower than the main gold price because it takes into account the smelting processing that is necessary to turn scrap gold into a recycled product that can be used again.
The scrap gold price rises when the main index does and is divided into 9ct, 14ct, 18ct, 22ct and 24ct with the higher carats obviously attracting the higher prices. If you don’t know what carat your gold is or don’t want to do the calculations, don’t worry – we can do all of that for you.
The world may not have enough gold available for purchase to meet immediate demand from investors for the precious metal, making the need even greater for old and unwanted gold jewellery to be recycled.
Indeed, there is a growing demand for recycled gold because there is not enough new gold mining going on. It’s an expensive practice to fund but the current state of the world economy means there is less investment around but a greater need for gold from investors who want somewhere safe to put their money.
The issue is that not all investors buy physical pieces of gold, but instead put their cash into pledges and undertaking – ‘paper gold’.
Niel [correct] Pretorius, the chief executive of South African gold mining company DRD Gold told Mining Weekly: “I think there’s going to be a fairly significant shortfall.
“There’s a shortage of real gold cover [for] the paper gold position that’s out there. Definitely, no doubt in my mind about that… and I think we’re going to run out of new gold.”
A high proportion of the gold that is circulating in the world is ‘old’ gold. The beauty of the precious metal is that it does not rust or corrode, and can be melted down again and again without losing any of its quality.
That is why scrap gold – old, broken or unwanted jewellery or pure gold items – is so important when it comes to meeting demand for the precious metal. A large proportion of recycled gold goes into producing new jewellery but some will also be used to make gold bullion bars and coins bought by investors.
Because demand is currently so high, the prices that are being paid for unwanted gold items have also increased in recent months, so it’s worth sorting through your jewellery box to check whether there’s anything there you can convert into cash – and play your part in meeting the global need for the precious metal.
There is a major difference between how much gold and silver recycled jewellery is coming on to the market to be used again, according to a new analysis.
Around 551 tonnes of silver jewellery was bought up to be used again worldwide last year, figures from the Metals Focus: Silver Scrap Repot revealed. But that’s just a drop in the ocean when it comes to the annual demand of 7,045 tonnes to turn into new silver jewellery.
Such straightforward comparisons are not available for how much old and unwanted gold jewellery is sold to be reused, because the figures for recycled gold also include gold bullion bars and coins that have been melted down to use again.
But Silver Seek estimates that around 1,000 tonnes of gold jewellery was recycled last year – less than half of the 2,415 tonnes demanded by jewellers to make new items in 2015. The report said the main reason there was such a difference between gold and silver recycling rates was that better prices that can be obtained for selling on old, broken and unwanted gold jewellery compared to the sale of unwanted silver pieces.
Selling on the old gold jewellery that you no longer wear, or pieces that are lying broken and unused at the back of a drawer or in a box makes good sense at the moment.
As well as helping meet some of the huge worldwide demand for gold to be converted into new pieces, the precious metal is continuing to attract strong values. Gold has been enjoying high prices this year thanks to worldwide political uncertainty.
That means you are able to obtain top dollar – or pounds per troy ounce of gold – when you decide to convert your unwanted pieces into cash.
It’s highly unlikely your old, broken or outdated gold jewellery will end up in the bin and heading for landfill, because it’s not the kind of thing you throw out with the rubbish.
But it’s a different story with electronic waste that’s past its sell-by date or just doesn’t work anymore. Last week, we took a look at how a massive e-waste scrap market in India is providing work for hundreds of people scrabbling about among the old computers and mobile phones to remove the precious gold, silver and copper wiring they use for recycling.
In the US, tech giant Apple – a big user of recycled gold in its products – actually produces an annual report covering how much precious metal it recycles from old iPhones and iPads. You may just be surprised at the quantity.
In 2015, Apple recovered almost a metric tonne of gold from old products that were no longer wanted. It gives some perspective on just how much recycled gold is demanded by the market and why there is such a strong trade in it. Apple is just one of the tech companies that use precious metals in its products, so imagine how much is needed to meet international demand.
The California-based business’ Environmental Responsibility Report says that the value of gold it recovered last year was around £28 million pounds. Given the rocketing price of bullion over this year, it’s likely that the value will be much higher when it comes to calculating the figure for 2016.
It also extracted an amazing 6,612lbs of silver, 2,953,360lbs of copper and 101,000lbs of steel from devices in 2015. Apple has robots called Liam, which were invented to do the job of taking apart more than a million iPhones every year to get at the precious metals they contain.
One of the reasons Apple is successful at recovering gold, silver and copper to use again in its products is its programme to offer money off new devices when customers hand in their old ones for recycling. It’s a double whammy – Apple is able to retain the customers, and get at the gold it needs to keep producing its tech.
The precious metal from your broken and unwanted gold jewellery that you can convert into cash is generally melted down and used to create new jewellery designs.
But as we’ve explored in previous articles, gold is a very important component in modern electronics from your laptop to your smart phone, where it is used in the circuitry.
Much of the scrap gold used in phones and computers is recycled many times over. The beauty of gold is that it can be used again and again without losing any of its quality. Plus, recycled gold is cheaper for manufacturers to buy than freshly-mined precious metals.
In India, the second biggest importer of gold in the world, there is a thriving market for recycled gold. The country is home to a giant e-waste market in Seelampur, where old and broken computers, fridges, phones, computers and television sets are sent to be scrapped.
The sheer size of the scrap market means it attracts tens of thousands of people, who come to remove the scrap gold and other metals, such as copper, which can be sold on for reuse. There is a mixture of independent workers at the site and people working for large companies, spending all day extracting the scrap gold and metals from the e-waste.
Muhammad Hameed owns a scrap shop and has been working at the market for four decades, making a living by removing the metals from old circuit boards.
People are paid both by the volume of scrap metal they are able to find and the type, with gold paying the best rates.
Ishtiyaq, who runs a scrap factory, told the Daily Mail: “There is a demand for gold and copper. There are copper manufacturing plants that mostly buy and purify the extracts. They pay a good amount.”
You may think last week’s vote for the UK to leave the European Union doesn’t have much to do with the price of your old, broken and unwanted gold items.
But you’d be wrong. The Brexit vote has sent the price of gold – which was already strong – even higher and that means the money you can earn from your scrap gold has gone up too. There is demand for gold at the moment because investors are looking for somewhere safe to put their cash while there is turmoil in the economy.
Since the vote to leave the EU last week, the value of the pound has fallen and astronomical amounts of money have been wiped off stocks – although there has been some improvement very recently. That effects everything from how far your money will go if you’re on holiday abroad to how much your pension is worth if you’re retiring.
But gold has traditionally been the go-to investment in times of trouble. Investors like it because it is a solid form of wealth that won’t disappear in a puff of smoke.
The increased demand for gold means that the price rises as the market looks to meet that demand. Even small amounts of gold coming from people's old jewellery will be affected by this.
Much of the gold people buy for investment purposes, such as gold bullion coins and bars, is produced from recycled gold. The broken necklace or old ring sitting in your jewellery box that you no longer wear has a real market value. With investors’ thirst for gold continuing to rise, more scrap gold is needed to make the investment products they want to buy.
Now is a great time to sort through your unwanted items and take advantage of the strong prices. In the uncertain world we’re currently living in, you can at least be sure of getting a good price for it.
It’s an Olympic year, and of course that means gold medals.
Like many of the gold and silver items that are now made, Olympic medals contain recycled precious metals. Organisers of the Rio Games, which begin in August, have unveiled the design of the medals for the event and released information about how they are made.
There will be a total of 5,130 medals made for the Rio Olympics and Paralympics, all created by the Brazilian Mint. They feature the traditional laurel leaf and Rio logo on one side and Nike, Greek goddess of victory, on the reverse. The name of the event each medal is awarded for is engraved around the edge.
And although the gold and silver medals do contain precious metal, they are not solid gold or silver. In fact, there is only a small amount of solid silver and gold in each, but the precious metals they do contain have been sustainably sourced.
The gold used has been extracted without using Mercury and has come from renewable sources, the Rio 2016 website reported. Both the silver and bronze medals contain 30 per cent recycled materials such as the silver from mirrors, X-ray plates and soldering materials.
It’s traditional for Olympic gold medals to be made from gilt silver – or silver gilded with gold. When London hosted the Games in 2012, the gold medals contained 92.5 per cent silver and just one per cent gold.
So if you have inherited or bought gold or silver Olympic medals and want to sell them for recycling, the actual precious metal content may not be exactly what you thought.
Of course, it’s a different matter with the scrap gold and silver jewellery that you can convert into cash. Troy ounce by ounce, the metal is worth much more than an Olympic medal, and who knows – the gold and silver you recycle now could be used as part of the medals produced for the next games in 2020.
At Scrap Gold, we don’t just recycle gold but we also buy silver items, which are then turned into new products.
Because gold and silver do not lose their quality, they can be reused time and time again, and in the modern world, recycling precious metals is a great way to reduce the environmental harm that large-scale mining can cause – and of course, earn some extra cash at the same time.
But you might be surprised to learn just how ancient a practice this is. According to archaeologists who have unearthed a hoard of Roman-era silver jewellery in Scotland, the Romans were also in the habit of reusing their precious metals.
Researchers from the University of Aberdeen, who have been studying what is known as the Gaulcross Hoard of silver pieces found in Scotland, wrote in their report: “Late Roman silver was recycled and recast into high-status objects that underpinned the development of elite society in the post-Roman period.”
The first pieces of the hoard were unearthed nearly 200 years ago by workers using dynamite to clear a field of rocks. They found a silver bangle, a chain and a pin but didn’t continue their search.
Now archaeologists have discovered around 100 silver items at the site, from ranging coins to broken pieces of jewellery and silver ingots that may have been used as money, Antiquity reported. There are also fragments of silver dishes and spoon handles made from silver.
The search took 18 months to complete and the team believes the items date back to the fifth or six centuries AD.
Archaeologists call a collection like this a hoard when they suspect it has been purposely buried or hidden. But if you have a hoard of your own of broken or unwanted gold or silver pieces, don’t just leave it hidden way in the back of a drawer. You can earn some great prices for precious metals at the moment, thanks to the current values of gold and silver.
Trends on the high street suggest that rose gold is enjoying a comeback and yellow gold is not far behind it, meaning that if you have rose or yellow gold items that are damaged or you no longer wear, now is a good time to sell.
Demand for rose and yellow gold from jewellers means that more of the precious metal is required for recycling and you’ll be able to earn a decent price if you decide to part with it. Of course, the strong gold price per troy ounce that we’ve seen so far this year also signifies a great time to make some money from trinkets you don’t need or use.
Britni-May Edwards from Page Fine Jewellery in Ely, Cambridgeshire, told Professional Jeweller: “Trends can take a while to ripple through, and rose gold is at a peak for us.
“It did take a while for it to get through, but it’s now showing no signs of slowing down. Nine carat gold sales are creeping up now. It’s more noticeable because it wasn’t selling before, probably because the price was so high.”
Rose gold, which is pinkish in colour, was originally popular with Russian royals in the 1800s and was also very fashionable in the 1920s. It’s a mixed metal, and 18 carat rose gold is typically made up from around 75 per cent yellow gold, 21 per cent copper – which creates the rosy glow – and four per cent silver.
While the pieces that are currently popular are modern, pinkish items, older rose gold jewellery doesn’t have the same on-trend look but is certainly worth trading in to recycle.
With much of the gold we buy melted down to make jewellery items, your unwanted rose gold could find itself transformed into new wedding and engagement rings – and put you in the pink with some extra cash in your pocket.
It’s fair to say that having gold jewellery in your collection means you’ll always be able to raise some extra cash when times are tight and when you come to sell your broken or unwanted pieces, you might be surprised just how much value they have.
But while the price of gold is currently strong and prices for scrap jewellery are reflecting that, you’re unlikely to raise as much cash as a very old piece of gold jewellery that’s been discovered in Dorset.
The pure gold crown, found in an old cardboard box, is believed to be Greek and date from 300BC. It is going up for auction, where it could make £100,000.
The crown is made from gold fashioned into leaves and put together in the shape of a wreath. Evidence of dirt on the piece make auctioneers think it had been buried at some point and was dug up by archaeologists.
The seller, who prefers to remain anonymous, received the crown as part of his inheritance from his grandfather who was a keen collector of ancient artefacts. It’s believed he may have acquired the piece during the 1940s or 1950s when he was travelling abroad.
Guy Schwinge, from auctioneers Dukes of Dorchester, told the Bournemouth Echo: "It is eight inches across and weighs about 100 grams. It's pure gold and handmade, it would have been hammered out by a goldsmith.
"The wreath is in very nice condition for something that's 2,300 years old. It's a very rare antiquity to find, they don't turn up often. I've never seen one in my career before."
The piece will be auctioned on June 9.
So, if you have any pieces of old gold jewellery tucked away that you’ve inherited but never worn and have no intention of doing so, it’s certainly worth your while finding out what they are worth.
If you have old, unwanted or broken gold jewellery to sell, now is a great time to make some money on it because demand is currently on the up.
New figures from the World Gold Council show that the UK jewellery industry used one per cent more gold in the first three months of this year than it did in the same period in 2015.
The increased British demand for gold comes at a time when prices paid to people selling their scrap gold are at the strongest they’ve been for years. Such is the demand for the precious metal from everyone from investors to jewellers and technology companies, that prices rose by a glittering 17 per cent in the first quarter of the year; the biggest rise in a three month period for almost 30 years.
The majority of scrap gold – broken and unwanted jewellery – that is bought in Britain goes back into creating new gold jewellery. Figures from the Birmingham Assay Office show the number of pieces being hallmarked after the usual busy run-up to Christmas, when gold jewellery always sells well, experienced another jump towards the end of the first quarter of this year.
Britain, however, is bucking the international trend. Although we’re buying more gold jewellery here in the UK, demand has fallen in the world’s biggest gold jewellery markets of China and India.
The World Gold Council statistics show that worldwide, there was actually a 19 per cent dip in demand for gold jewellery in the first three months of the year. The main reason for this was a strike by Indian jewellers, who were protesting about taxes being imposed on their work. There were also concerns in China about the country’s economic growth, which meant people weren’t spending their cash.
But overall, the picture for gold is a sparkling one. Worldwide, 1,290 tonnes of the precious metal changed hands in the first three months of the year, a rise of 21 per cent on the first quarter of 2015.
Previous Posts
Guide to Gold Melt Value: Understanding the Intrinsic Worth of Your Precious Metals
Scrap Gold Laws and Regulations in the UK: What You Need to Know
How to best negotiate a price for your scrap gold
How much is 9ct gold worth?
Can I sell broken jewellery?
What’s My Jewellery Worth?
Christmas 2023 Operating Hours
How to get the Best Price for Your Gold Jewellery
Selling Scrap Gold in the Aftermath of Her Majesty The Queen’s Passing
Business Closure for the State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen
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