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Gold in the United States of America

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Thanks to our friends at Gold Eagle for sponsoring this piece.

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Gold in the United States of America

Thanks to our friends at Gold Eagle for sponsoring this piece.

The United States has always had a love affair with the yellow metal. It all started in Stafford, Virginia in 1782, when Thomas Jefferson documented the first gold discovery himself.

Since then, Americans have been searching for gold far and wide. The California Gold Rush brought hundreds of thousands of people to the West in search of new found wealth. Years later, many more ventured into Alaska’s wilderness to hit it rich.

Even today, there is a modern gold rush in Nevada, where the five biggest gold mines (by contained oz) are located. The US produced 8.2% of the world’s gold in 2013, which puts it in third place for annual production.

It’s also no secret that the US also holds the largest reserves of gold today, primarily located in the Fort Knox and Federal Reserve Bank of New York depositories. Between the two locations, a hefty 8,133.5 tonnes of gold are vaulted.

The future is still bright for gold in America: in fact, just three undeveloped deposits in Alaska (Pebble, Donlin, and Livengood) hold a potentially game-changing 180,000,000 oz of gold combined.

While it is true that there have been some hiccups along the way, such as Roosevelt’s confiscation of gold in 1933, it is unlikely that America’s fixation on gold will end any time soon.

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Copper

Brass Rods: The Secure Choice

This graphic shows why brass rods are the secure choice for precision-machined and forged parts.

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Teaser of bar chart and pie chart highlighting three ways brass rods empower manufacturers in the competitive market for precision-machined and forged products.

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The following content is sponsored by Copper Development Association

Brass Rods: The Secure Choice

The unique combination of machinability and recyclability makes brass rods the secure choice for manufacturers seeking future-proof raw material solutions.

This infographic, from the Copper Development Association, shows three ways brass rods give manufacturers greater control and a license to grow in the competitive market for precision-machined and forged products.

Future-Proof Investments in New Machine Tools

A material’s machinability directly impacts machine throughput, which typically has the largest impact on machine shop profitability.

The high-speed machining capabilities of brass rods maximize machine tool performance, allowing manufacturers to run the material faster and longer without sacrificing tool life, chip formation, or surface quality.

The high machining efficiency of brass leads to reduced per-part costs, quicker return on investment (ROI) for new machine tools, and expanded production capacity for new projects.

Supply Security Through Closed Loop Recycling

Brass, like its parent element copper, can be infinitely recycled. 

In 2022, brass- and wire-rod mills accounted for the majority of the 830,000 tonnes of copper recycled from scrap in the United States.

Given that scrap ratios for machined parts typically range from 60-70% by weight, producing mills benefit from a secure and steady supply of clean scrap returned directly from customers, which is recycled to create new brass rods.

The high residual value of brass scrap creates a strong recycling incentive. Scrap buy back programs give manufacturers greater control over raw material net costs as scrap value is often factored into supplier purchase agreements.

Next Generation Alloys for a Lead-Free Future

Increasingly stringent global regulations continue to pressure manufacturers to minimize the use of materials containing trace amounts of lead and other harmful impurities.

The latest generation of brass-rod alloys is engineered to meet the most demanding criteria for lead leaching in drinking water and other sensitive applications.

Seven brass-rod alloys passed rigorous testing to become the only ‘Acceptable Materials’ against lower lead leaching criteria recently adopted in the national U.S. drinking water quality standard, NSF 61.

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Learn more about the advantages of brass rods solutions.

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