Precious Metals Recovery Program saves more than $300 million

Courtesy Photo | Used electronic components, like circuit boards, make up a large portion of the precious metals recovered through the Precious Metals Recovery Program. DLA Disposition Services helps save millions of dollars each year by identifying and collecting usable metals for refinement.  

UNITED STATES

09.01.2010

Courtesy Story

Defense Logistics Agency   

The Defense Department’s Precious Metals Recovery Program, executed by Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services, has proved to be a beacon of stewardship. It has saved taxpayers nearly $300 million over the past three decades in the refinement and reuse of precious metals in a host of items ranging from gold tooth fillings to silver-bearing torpedo batteries.

In addition to saving taxpayer money, the program reduces the demand on diminishing resources, minimizes hazardous waste and as a recycling program supports the “green” goals of the federal government.

If there’s precious metal in an item a military unit turns in to DLA Disposition Services, a contractor will refine and recover it then transfer it or its equivalent value to DLA’s metals storage bank for future use, and then DLA will reimburse DLA Disposition Services for the costs of making it all happen.

Many DLA Disposition Services field sites have a designated primary and secondary monitor of precious metals. The monitors keep track of what scrap they have on hand that is precious metals-bearing and remind their customers that the Precious Metals Recovery Program is mandatory for DoD entities and participating federal civil agencies.

“They have a lot to deal with, a lot on their plate, but they do a good job,” said Laura Green, the DLA Disposition Services Precious Metals Recovery Program manager.

Precious metals can be found many different types of property, including circuit boards, silver batteries, film and many other electronic components. Silver batteries make up the largest source of silver in DoD. More metals come from items as disparate as dental wires, desalting kits, radar antennas, detonator fuses, eyeglass frames and uniform buttons. Not every item with precious metals is considered beneficial to the government to recover valuable elements from. But of the many that are considered worth recovering from, it is no easy task to keep all the various metals from slipping through disposition channels unrecognized.

To help keep track, all items in the cataloging system are assigned a stock number and tagged with precious metal indicator codes that help identify their presence in materials turned in to DLA Disposition Services. Sometimes, however, the nature of the item and its components can be unclear, and that’s where the expertise of disposition professionals is crucial to ensuring good stewardship, officials said. DLA Disposition Services also relies on data from the customer to assist in placing received precious metals-bearing items or material into the appropriate precious metals scrap pile. Or, when property is not picked up through screening, this information is used as part of the downgrade action to put the excess or surplus material into the appropriate scrap pile.

“They use experience and rely on visual cues. … There are all sorts of little tools used by a receiver to identify property with precious metal content,” Green said. “We tell them, ‘Get as much information as you can,’ and they do.”

Some of the tools relied on in addition to the turn-in document include magnets carried by receivers to help identify particular metals and grinding wheels used for spark tests; receivers can often discern the metal’s type by the color of spark emitted.

“They take everything they know about the property to decide which way it goes in the lifecycle,” Green said.

If an item goes the Precious Metals Recovery Program route, it will end up in the hands of Sabin Metals, a small business that handles all of DLA Disposition Services’ metals recovery needs. Green said she is very pleased to have a single contract at present, instead of the confusion of multiple companies and destinations for recovery-ready scrap.

“It has worked out wonderfully,” Green said. “The sites no longer have to worry about what items have to be sent to what location. It all goes to the same place.”

In the past fiscal year, DLA Disposition Services recovered almost 5,000 ounces of gold, more than 200,000 ounces of silver, 150 ounces of platinum, and about 1,300 ounces of palladium, all with a value of more than $7 million. The amount recovered and the metal value can vary widely from year to year, officials said.

• Date Taken: 09.01.2010
• Date Posted: 09.01.2010 08:49
• Story ID: 55528
• Location: US