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Earned Placement: Assay Q&A

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Earned Placement: Assay Q&A 

Scientific Metals’ Dave Weinberg answers Townies’ questions about the scrap metal refining process

A few months ago, we asked members of Dentaltown’s editorial advisory board to send us any questions they had related to the dental scrap metal refining business—about the process, the players, the proof, the payoffs and more. We shipped those questions to Dave Weinberg of Scientific Metals, who agreed to answer them here based on his decades of experience in the refining industry.

We’ve grouped the Townie questions by category, focusing on the most common metals, the assay process, the ethics behind the transaction and the payoff process. (And if your question isn’t answered here, feel free to contact Scientific Metals directly at 888-949-0008.)


THE METALS

What kind of metals and materials do you accept for refining?
We accept any and all materials that contain gold, platinum, silver and palladium, but we predominantly focus on the dental and jewelry industry. From the dental side, we accept and refine old crowns, bridges, etc., as well as solids, floor sweeps, grindings and carpets from dental labs. From the jewelry side, we accept and process all karat scrap as well as polishings and grindings.


How much has the popularity of e.Max and zirconia changed the landscape in this area?
We definitely have witnessed less and less precious metals going into patients’ mouths, but still see a solid amount of precious metal still in circulation and being pulled out.


How does Scientific Metals stay current with fluctuating market prices for precious metals?
We monitor the precious metals market very carefully and do our best to hedge our price risk with gold futures. We never want to be exposed to or vulnerable to large price fluctuations, because we’re in the business of providing the best precious metals refining services, not speculating on gold and other metal prices.

What sort of trends are there for metal prices?
Palladium has really increased over the past few years! What had been considered a relatively cheap metal reached $3,000 an ounce for a while, based on supply fears related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The price has come down significantly since then because the global forecast for cars and their palladium components has dipped, but it still remains very strong, at around $1,200 per ounce.

I recommend turning in for refining any item that may contain gold, palladium, platinum and silver. Items such as partial frameworks, titanium abutments and amalgam crowns do not contain precious metals, and therefore are not suitable for refining.


THE PROCESS

What is Scientific Metals’ process for ensuring the maximum recovery of precious metals?
The process is complicated, but the formula is simple. We invest in the latest technology, including the most efficient furnaces and assay equipment in the industry. Equally important are the people who operate the equipment, and I think we have the best melting manager and assay manager in the business, with decades of experience. But above all, it’s about integrity: You can have the latest and greatest equipment, but without honest and accurate reporting, the rest is meaningless. So the formula is simple: great technology with impeccable integrity.

Each lot is melted individually at optimal temperatures in one of our four induction furnaces, and then a pin sample is extracted from each melt for assay. In this process, a small portion of the molten lave is “sucked up” into a glass tube (Fig. 1). A pin sample is the gold standard for sampling accuracy because it ensures a perfectly homogeneous sample. Some other assay companies choose to use drill sampling, in which small holes are drilled into the bar for sampling, but the main risk in this approach is that if the bar is not homogenously melted, different parts of the bar may show different results.

Once we obtain a pin sample, we send it to our in-house lab (Fig. 2) for an inductive coupled plasma analysis that can detect precious metals in parts per million. Our ICP machine is regularly tested for accuracy with third-party independent labs as part of our rigorous internal audits.
Earned Placement: Assay Q&A
Fig. 1:Dennis taking a pin sample.
Earned Placement: Assay Q&A
Fig. 2: Sample being prepped at Scientific Metals’ in-house lab.



What assurances are there that an individual office’s scrap isn’t combined in the process with others and the amount is just an educated guess as to the breakdown?
Each lot is photographed, documented and assigned a bar code (Fig. 3). Each lot is melted and assayed individually until after the assay and payment acceptance from the customer. A detailed report showing the amounts of recoverable gold, platinum, silver and palladium as well as metal prices is provided to the customer.

The entire process takes about seven business days from the time we receive the scrap until we reach out with the final settlement. The metals prices used for the payout are usually based on the London PM fix on the day the assay is complete, but customers can make special requests to “lock in” their price on the day we receive the scrap shipment.

Customers are free to decline the offer for whatever reason, and we will return their melted bar/ingot back to them at no cost.
Earned Placement: Assay Q&A
Fig. 3: Individual dentist lots waiting to be melted.

THE ETHICS

Can I visit the facility where the refining is happening?
All customers are welcome to make an appointment to watch their scrap being melted! Our headquarters is in Woodside, New York, about a 15-minute drive from Manhattan. The facility has obtained all the required city and state environmental permits that allow us to process our materials in an environmentally conscious manner (Figs. 4 and 5). We also offer our jewelry customers “chain of custody” gold (“CoC gold” for short). The CoC standard was originally introduced in 2012 as a voluntary standard for creating a chain of custody for precious metals that are responsibly produced, processed and traded through jewelry supply chains, and that are third-party-assured at every stage.

I’ve heard there are only a few places that actually process the metal, and the other companies just send their metal to the same couple of refiners. Is this true?

It is! Many gold buyers who may pop into your practice, perhaps offering cash, often do not process the materials themselves; they are, in effect, middlemen or brokers. Many of them will send their metals to someone like us to melt for reimbursement, and then will make the spread on what they received from the refiner (us) and their payouts to the customer.
Earned Placement: Assay Q&A
Fig.4: Cleaning a small gold bar from gold crowns.
Earned Placement: Assay Q&A
Fig.5: Dennis pouring 400 ounces of gold.



What are the disadvantages of selling for cash to a broker or middleman?
The main disadvantage is that you may not be receiving an accurate amount for your scrap. It’s impossible to determine metal content with a visual inspection or by scratching a gold crown on a stone and applying acid with a “gold test kit.” A silvery-looking crown could be palladium, nickel or silver, and because of this uncertainty, the cash offer has to be low to account for that price variation. The “weigh and pay” method may result in the dentist leaving a lot of money and value on the table. Some people have estimated that cash payments may be as low as 40% of the actual value of the scrap.


THE PAYOFF

How, specifically, are Scientific Metals’ refining charges better than their competitors?
There’s a two-part answer to that question. First, we have no hidden charges or fees. We’ve heard from some of our newer customers that with their previous refiners, they had discovered additional fees and charges that amounted to more 30% after dissecting the math on the settlement sheet and digging a little deeper to find crushing additional charges in the fine print.

Second, I always stress that dentists should not be hyperfocused on the company’s advertised fees or refining rates and choose a refiner solely based on who promises the lowest fees. Companies and sales reps can promise anything they want—it’s about integrity and how many total dollars you get back for your scrap. I can’t tell you how many times over the years dentists have told me their lowest scrap dollar return came from sales reps and companies who “promised” the lowest rates. It’s about trust and who will report the most honestly.


Does Scientific Metals offer payment options, such as bitcoin, cash, check or metal bullion?
Our customers can receive payment in check/e-check, bank wire/ ACH, or gold, silver, platinum or palladium bullion.


It seems every refining company advertises “highest returns.” What do you do differently that allows you make that claim with support?
Good question. For the most part, that line is a marketing gimmick. It’s like every search engine optimization firm promising to get you on the first page of Google. Not everyone can be on the first page!

In our case, it comes down to our integrity and business model. I touched on the integrity issue a bit earlier, with respect to reporting issues and hidden fees. As for the business model side of the equation, we don’t have commission-based sales reps, which allows us to pass those savings to the customer, which in turn results in higher scrap returns. In addition, we’ve adopted many other cost-cutting measures to ensure we’re best positioned to have the highest scrap returns.


What is Scientific Metals’ track record? Can you provide testimonials or case studies from other dental practices or Townies?
Scientific Metals is the only precious metals refiner ever to have been the preferred partner for the world-renowned Seattle Study Club and the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.

We would need 20 pages of the magazine to showcase all our reviews and case studies, but you can find a lot of them on our website (scientificmetals.com) and I’ll include one case study here from Dr. Ed Char, a dentist who practices in Hawaii and did an experiment that was as close to perfect as can be as far as quantity and quality of metal sent to each company.

Dr. Char fastidiously cut each and every one of his crowns in half, and sent half to us and half to a refining company his dental supply rep recommended through their partnership. The payout from Scientific Metals was about 30% higher than the other company’s. We and the other company had very similar assays with respect to the metal composition, but the difference, as Dr. Char discovered, was that the other company had a hard-to-detect additional charge called an “accountability charge,” which was approximately an additional 30% on top of the company’s refining fee.

Go online or call to learn even more!

If you have questions about the refining process or would like more information about the value of your dental scrap materials, visit scientificmetals.com or call 888-949-0008.

Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
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