Recycling Industrial Palladium
Palladium is used in electronics and jewelry, but it most frequently comes to us from dentists. While this precious metal remains popular in other industries, nearly 1 million ounces of palladium are used each year in dental applications. A lot of the dental palladium we work with is mixed with other metals like gold, which is more expensive, but this is not a problem. In our palladium recycling process, we can easily separate the metals to determine the percentage of each metal within a particular lot.
Valued between silver and gold, palladium is quickly becoming popular in jewelry applications because it resembles platinum but at a much lower cost. Because of its popularity and cost, palladium recycling has also become more prominent. After extensive palladium jewelry production in China, it has caught on in the Asian markets as a popular metal used to make jewelry. While palladium has been used for jewelry since the 1940s, it is more commonly used today because of its price relative to the price of platinum. When platinum prices started rising, jewelers started using palladium to achieve the desired shiny, white-silver appearance in their designs.
Russia is responsible for a large majority of palladium production, with South Africa ranking second. A small amount is also mined in the United States and Canada.