The market is slowly improving for copper consumers as Comex/LME prices have drifted lower over the last two months and scrap prices decline. Whether prices will get back to the levels seen last December of $6500/ton remains to be seen, but falling scrap demand in China has helped the availability of raw material supply to […]

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Despite new recycling programs, mobile phones can’t always count on life after death. Most people are too busy to search for those opportunities. That’s a shame for those in the metals industry, since copper, platinum and silver are just a few of the metals that are discarded when cell phones move to the local landfill. […]

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An expensive item to compress, the recycling of scrap aluminum is sometimes considered more trouble than its worth. Luckily, there’s a recycled surface material called Alkemi that saves the fine aluminum milling scrap that often graces local landfills, using that industrial aluminum scrap for beautifully-crafted countertops. The product’s creators from Renewed Materials say that Alkemi also decreases the “heavy […]

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Gas tax or no gas tax? Thanks to the proposed gas tax holiday, that’s the question of the day for American presidential candidates. This isn’t a political blog, so you won’t hear comments about whether or not this is fiscally irresponsible and an attempt to buy votes or a chance to alleviate the pocketbooks of […]

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Here’s an old idea that has caught the attention of commentators this week but with a new twist due in large part to the high price of the metals involved. Metals and material have been recycled for decades and in many countries considerable encouragement is given by governments in an effort to reduce raw material and energy […]

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If you get a chance, go see the new movie In Bruge, starring Colin Farrel and Brendan Gleeson. There is a great scene when some American tourists ask Colin Farrel’s character how to get to the top of the Belfry Tower. I can’t tell you Farrel’s punchline, but suffice it to say that to reach […]

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My husband bought a box of cereal a few weeks ago promoting the fact that it was 75% organic. Never mind what the remaining content contained. Always the skeptic, I expect that a good percentage of these marketing claims are just that…”claims”. Over on SpendMatters editor Jason Busch joked that L’Oreal (the make-up company) had […]

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If you caught the first part of our series on green innovations in the metals industry, you’ll know that the MetalMiner staff is excited about following the growth and development of “green metals.” We love hearing about eco-friendly improvements and new practices in the metals industry. The men and women behind GreenAlloys™ share this excitement […]

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There’s an age-old adage that one thing is constant – and it’s change. No, I’m not leading into politics and the 2008 presidential election in the States. Rather, let’s think beyond Super Tuesday and look to the metals industry. With all of the metals industry’s longstanding practices, are there really ways for metals and metals-related processes […]

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Home of such influential rockers as the White Stripes, Electric Six, the Detroit Cobras, and the Raconteurs, Detroit was also rocking and rolling with the North American International Auto Show last week. The show will remain open to the public until January 27. Not the biggest, maybe not even the most-loved auto show around, the […]

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