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Dave: I am a precious metal nut.
I'm a gold scavenger.
If it's gold or silver, platinum, I'm there.
When I'm driving I'm treasure hunting.
It's crazy that people throw away decent car parts
without realizing that there's precious metals inside them.
Webb: Good for us.
What's this ***?
That's worth looking at.
Dave: Catalytic Converters are no question the best source
of platinum out there right now.
Yeah, it's a medium sized catalytic converter.
Looks in good shape.
You can get up to $600 or $700 in some of them.
If I can get a couple of those,
I could get up to 1,400 bucks.
Webb: It's worth asking about.
Dave: Yeah.
Webb: Let's get it for a steal.
Dave: Well we have to get it for a steal because it's,
you know, it's a medium sized cat.
Webb: Right.
Dave: What the heck was that?
No, what was that?
Victor: What do you guys want?
Webb: Gun.
Dave: Go, go, get out and go!
Victor: Get that (bleep) camera out of here!
Dave: Let's go!
Narrator: Theres a new breed of treasure hunters and
they're looking for precious metals and
you wont belive where they find them.
Rich: If this thing blows up in my face
I'm out $1,000.
Diego: I've been looking at those hoops in your ears.
Dave: I am a gold nut.
I'm willing to risk everything.
Woo hoo-hoo!
Rich: Holy (bleep).
I have got to get into this thing.
I can't stop myself.
If I know that there's a deal out there to be made;
I'm gonna take advantage of it.
Diego: This is the biggest risk I've ever taken.
Dave: We did good.
Narrator: Once they find the metal, they melt it.
Dave: Platinum meltdown baby.
Rich: Big pay days here.
Narrator: To make big, big money.
Rich: I'm new to the area so I've always kinda
throwing my net out there trying to find people that can
help me with my job.
Bobby: What's goin' on man?
Rich: What's happening?
Bobby: How are you?
Rich: I'm good, how you been?
Bobby: Good.
Rich: I met a guy named Bobby and he knows the
manufacturing industry.
This is the place?
Bobby: This is the place.
Rich: Bobby's got the inside scoop on this
warehouse that's supposed to be filled with
manufacturing equipment.
I know that precious metals, especially silver,
is used in this kind of equipment.
How do you get into the place?
Bobby: It's buried here behind all of this stuff.
Looking promising?
Rich: No, it was for a second.
Holy (bleep).
This place is just full.
It's got stuff scattered everywhere and
nothing is organized.
Bobby: Find something?
Rich: No.
All I see is standard low tech machinery.
I'm not looking for copper and aluminum.
No go.
I'm looking for something that's sophisticated.
Not just a box and a couple switches because I know the
more sophisticated it is the better chance I'm gonna
have a bigger pay day.
Somebody can get killed back here.
Bobby: Find something?
Rich: No, no.
We're gonna walk out of here empty handed.
Bobby: Oh boy, plenty of stuff around here.
Rich: Dude, there it is.
Rich: Right in front of me is a robotic arm.
And it's the kind that's used on automotive
assembly lines.
I mean I'm from Detroit.
I grew up around this stuff.
To put a car together this robotic arm has got
to use a ton of power, which means this thing has
got to be full of silver.
If I can get 100 ounces of silver out of this thing,
that'd be almost three grand.
This is exactly what we need.
Bobby: Hey Jay, you around?
Rich: Thanks for letting us come in here today and
take a look around.
Jay: I guarantee you you're gonna get the
best deal here.
Rich: Alright, I might hold you to that.
Jay: Absolutely, how about $2,500 for the
robot and for the electronics?
Rich: You haven't been thinking about this very
long have you?
You're asking way too much money.
Be what, 700 bucks?
Jay: No, no.
You are getting bargains here.
Rich: You're just a hoarder aren't you?
You just want to keep it.
Jay: Sure, you can see that.
$2,000 is bottom line.
Rich: I can't do $2,000 bucks.
Jay: No more negotiation, no more talking down, okay?
If you can pay the right price then we do the deal.
Diego: I've been hunting precious metals for a while now.
It's part of my job to just go on a whim into places.
Pete: What can I do for you?
Diego: Do you have any old revolvers or anything like that?
Pete: Yeah I do.
Diego: Yeah?
I don't tell anybody that I'm negotiating with
what I'm really after.
If I tell somebody, I'm giving them the power.
Pete: These are a set for the 200th anniversary
of the constitution.
And that is 24 karat gold plate at jewelry level.
Diego: Yeah, that is really nice.
Pete: For the whole set, $2,000.
Diego: The gold and silver that I can get
off that revolver is only gonna be worth a fraction
of his asking price.
That's a little out of the price range of what
I'm looking to spend.
What are these bullets on the, uh, racks right there?
Pete: Yeah, these are silver bullets, solid silver.
Diego: Huh.
Well you know, can I see the rest of these?
This guys only got three silver bullets.
That can't be worth more than a few bucks.
But if I can get a few hundred silver bullets,
that could be worth a few hundred bucks.
Do you happen to know where you got these?
What store or anything like that?
Pete: It's a little gun shop.
Kind of more of a surplus type shop out in the desert.
If you can find that guy, you know ask around maybe
he's still got his shop somewhere.
Diego: You know what?
I'm gonna give it a try.
Thanks a lot.
Webb: I can't believe that guy came out with a gun.
Dave: I never seen nothing like that.
That was like, I'm outta here man.
Today, Webb and I are on a hunt for catalytic
converters from used cars.
Webb: I do know of another place I think we
could check out.
It's like a little junkyard on top of a hill,
could be a gold mine.
Dave: Or a platinum mine.
Webb: Or a platinum mine as it were, yes.
Dave: Man, look at this place.
Webb: Huh?
Dave: I know.
Man, I was thinking 15 cars and Webb's got
this huge monster surprise for me,
there's hundreds of cars up here.
I'm excited but I don't want to let him know
because I like always trying to, you know, kinda mess
with him a little bit, so, but I'm jacked.
Look at that.
Which one do you want to crawl under?
Rock, paper, scissors.
Loser crawls under that one,
winner crawls under this one.
Webb: Awww.
Can't tell if it's in there.
Dave: What a catalytic converter is,
is it's part of the exhaust system of all cars
that burn unleaded fuel.
And it uses platinum to turn the exhaust gasses into
a less harmful discharge from the car and it's better
for the environment.
Webb: Too bad mustangs aren't worth (bleep).
He's got a lot.
Dave: The things that I look at when I'm buying
catalytic converters is how big is that catalytic converter?
Is the car and import or not?
The imports tend to be bigger.
And also, how many miles are on it.
The more miles on a car the less likely that
there's a good amount of platinum in it.
Dave: Is it in there?
Webb: No, it's not.
Dave: As I'm walking around there's really nothing
that's striking my interest.
This one's crap.
What's that green car right there, buddy?
Webb: Oh Jaguar, shut up.
Dave: All of a sudden, boom!
This green car jumps right out at me.
It's the car that I've been wanting to do
ever since I started this.
It's the holy grail of catalytic converters.
Twelve cylinder.
Size is everything baby.
The bigger it is, the more platinum.
Oh yeah.
Oh, this is what we're coming to find, though, right here.
That car alone is a jackpot.
This place is huge and it's like,
how many more are there gonna be?
So continuing to walk around the cars seem to be
getting better and better.
Webb: Dude, it's Yugo.
Dave: Does that mean "you go under car?"
Webb: Oh yeah, there's one sitting right here.
It's kinda big.
Aw, this one's got it sittin' right here.
Dave: This junkyard was a total score.
Man: I like them presidents.
Dave: Yeah, there you go.
Dave: I paid $300 dollars to get five cats from the junkyard.
And I'm thinking the chances are real good that
we're gonna make a good pay day.
Rich: How many people are beating down your door
right now asking for a monster-sized robot that
they don't even make anymore?
Jay: Right, but I know these are very valuable.
Rich: I'm trying to buy this robotic arm because
I know it's got to be filled with silver components.
Now, I don't know where they are or how much
silver is in it.
Once I start negotiating it's not about the product,
it's about what I can get it for.
Tell you what; I'll give you 900 bucks for everything.
Jay: No.
Rich: All of it, 900 bucks.
Jay: I can't do it.
Okay, I tell you what, I give it to you for 1,500.
Rich: Deal, deal.
I'll go with that.
15 crisp, $100 bills.
Jay: Okay, alright.
Bobby: Ready to take this thing apart?
Rich: I feel pretty good about it.
Let's do it.
I know that there's stuff in here,
we just gotta find it.
Bobby: It looks like you're (bleep) it.
Rich: I wish it only felt that good.
Where they hid it?
Here we go, here we go.
I can feel it.
Whoa.
Shoot.
Bobby: Looks like aluminum.
You're not looking so excited anymore.
Rich: Now I'm getting nervous.
Half the days gone, not to mention the $1500 that
I've sunk into this thing.
It was a huge gamble and I haven't found
any silver anywhere.
Diego: I was looking for guns that contained precious metals,
but instead I got the idea to hunt for silver bullets.
Supposedly, this place sells them.
Hey there, how you doing?
Bill: Looking for anything in particular today that
I can help you with, or?
Diego: I am trying to collect silver bullets.
Bill: Silver bullets.
Diego: Silver ammunition and I heard that you have some.
Bill: I can show you some.
Diego: I look down and I see 50 rounds of
solid silver bullets.
I'm gonna get them.
Bill: What were you thinking of offering me for them?
Diego: How 'bout $150 for both boxes.
These boxes weight about a pound each,
but I have no idea how much is silver and
how much is actual casings.
But I do know that I don't want to pay more
than $2.00 a piece.
Bill: Truthfully, that wouldn't even buy a box.
$350 for the two boxes.
Diego: How am I going to connect with this guy?
I was kind of wondering how much these boots are.
Bill: The boots are $49.95 and this backpack,
I've traveled all over the world,
this is the back pack I've used to travel all
over the world.
Diego: You know really what this reminds me of
is when I left Saudi.
Bill: Oh really?
Diego: I lost my rucksack I had one like this and it
kind of reminds me of that.
Bill: So you're ex-military?
Diego: I am indeed, I saw your hat.
Bill: Congratulations.
Diego: I salute you sir.
Bill: I was in the last days of the Vietnam War.
Diego: He's a Vietnam veteran,
I'm a Desert Storm veteran, boom, there it.
That's my way in with this guy.
I'll give you $200 cash.
Bill: You buying the other stuff too?
Diego: I will buy the other stuff too.
Bill: That's a deal.
Diego: We got a deal?
Alright.
I'm walking out of here with 100 silver bullets and
all I had to pay was $200 and buy a backpack.
Dave: I can't believe we're doing this venture
when platinum just dropped.
Webb: I know.
Dave: Platinum has been dropping a ton these last
few days and right now it's only worth about $51 a gram.
We did good!
Webb: We got some cats.
Dan: Let's get to work.
I love the smell of metal in the mornings.
Dave: We got five catalytic converters,
but getting the platinum out of these things,
it can be a total pain.
First we have to plasma cut the metal body off of the
honeycomb core.
The honeycomb inside the cat is where the chemical
reaction actually takes place and that's where
the platinum is.
Dave: Well you did cut into this one didn't you?
Webb: A little bit.
Dan: Yeah, he star.
Dave: Okay, that comes out of your paycheck.
Let's get the mesh off of it.
We can start prepping them for leaching.
Once we get the honeycomb core out we dissolve the
platinum off of that using acid and bleach.
Hydrochloric acid fumes are holy hell on your lungs.
You have to take every safety precaution;
you have to know what you're doing.
There are chemicals that if you use them improperly,
they'll kill you.
Diego: I always enjoy melting things down.
I'm making money in the city that I live in,
digging for gold, silver.
I got a hundred silver bullets and I need to separate
the silver slugs from the casing.
Separating them manually is going to take forever
and it's dangerous.
I thought of a better way.
Alright, what's the best way to stop these bullets
without losing any of them.
Why not get a big plastic trash can,
fill it with sand and shoot right into that?
It's working.
Now I'm happy.
I love my job.
It's something different every day.
That's why I do this.
When I fire, the cartridge flies away and the actual
bullet, which is sliver, gets embedded in the sand.
Let's see what we got here.
I'm not finding anything.
Did these things blow right through this trash can?
I'm feeling like, "Oh no, I've calculated
this entirely wrong and they're all in the
mountainside somewhere."
Aha, that's it.
There we go, there they are.
I fired all 100 rounds into the barrel and my military
training must have paid off because I only missed two.
Rich: Me and Bobby have been at the warehouse for hours,
tearing apart every single inch of this robotic arm.
I thought the silver would be staring me in the
face by now.
Quite frankly it's starting to *** me off.
Bobby: The robot's winning.
Rich: I'm calling my buddy Preston to bring
over his XRF Analyzer.
The XRF can detect precious metals in places that our
eyes just can't see.
Preston: No, nothing's showing right now.
Got a little aluminum, a little copper,
but not worth.
Rich: What about down through here?
Preston: Yeah, nothing.
Let's take a look over here.
Let me see what we got here.
It's reading something.
Yep, it's silver.
Rich: The XRF Analyzer hasn't found any silver in
the arms at all, but it has detected that the
robotic arm's power boxes are loaded with them.
Just put the torch on it, pop the tabs off,
that is our silver right there.
Let's melt some of these bad boys off of there.
I spent a lot of money, 1,500 bucks.
I don't care if it takes me the rest of the night.
I got to find every tiny little piece of silver that
I can or I'm not gonna make any money out of this.
That's what I'm talking about.
Diego: Today, I'm on my way to go melt
some silver bullets.
I spent $200 on 100 bullets.
Fernando: Good to see you, man.
Diego: You too.
The price of silver and gold fluctuates up and down
every single day, so I've got to get this stuff melted
fast because I never know if the market's going
to drop tomorrow.
So let's melt this.
Fernando: Let's do this man.
Diego: Nice!
I really get excited to see that fire and feel the heat.
Fernando: Here we go.
Diego: Bar's done.
It looks great, time to find out what this bar's worth.
Simon: So what interesting thing did you
bring over today?
Diego: Silver bullets.
Simon: You're kidding.
Diego: Simon knows I'm gonna bring the cool stuff.
I'm a rock star when I walk into this place.
Simon: Alright, well let's see what it's got here.
Let's see what we've got.
700.8 grams, 99.3% pure silver bullets.
This bar's worth $500.
Diego: I took a hundred silver bullets and turned
them into $300 profit.
Not a bad day's work.
[Simon laughs].
Dave: The platinum from the catalytic converters
took three days to dissolve off the honeycomb,
now I'm taking that to the melt facility to
find out what we got.
This is some valuable soot.
It looks like black dust or soot, but what it is,
is it's platinum that has not been melted into a form
that you would recognize.
It's super exciting when you take that black mud that
looks like nothing and when you start adding heat to it,
it starts to get really shiny and rolls into
the middle of the dish.
See how hard it is to melt?
This flame is 5,300 degrees right now and
it's barely enough.
Alright, let's see what we get.
Oh yeah, platinum meltdown baby.
I love that.
This is five catalytic converters right here.
It's an unreal feeling holding platinum in your
hand 'cause it's way heavier than in it looks.
Rick: 1877.
Dave: So same thing that mine said.
Rick: Magic gun on it.
Dave: I paid $300 to get these five cats.
This is where I know how much money I'm gonna make.
It's anxious, its nerve racking.
Rick: Dave, it looks like you got 88% platinum.
Dave: That's awesome, it's way better than
I thought it was gonna be.
Rick: 4, 5, 6, 7.
Dave: I got $768 off of the catalytic converters
from a few cars.
That's a great pay day.
I'll take that any day.
Rick: Take care.
Dave: Have a good one, say hi to Sonia.
Rick: I will.
Rich: Here we go.
It's meltdown time.
I spent $1,500 on this robotic arm.
I'd be ecstatic if I could make $2,500 off of this,
but I only got three containers full of the
silver tabs and I have no idea how much that's
gonna amount to.
Fernando: Ready?
Rich: Yeah, I'm ready.
Fernando: Very good.
Rich: You gotta make sure we get all of it.
Fernando: Oh, we'll get all of it.
Rich: Keep on scooping.
Man that's a lot still in there.
That's it, huh?
Fernando: That's it, buddy.
Rich: That's a pretty big piece, right?
Fernando: Uh-huh.
Rich: So I got my silver melted and it's
down to this.
I hope I have enough silver from the robotic arm
to make a profit.
Simon: Hey.
Rich: Here you go, give me my money.
Simon: Let's weigh it first.
Let's see what the weight comes out to be.
63.95, pretty good.
Rich: That's good.
Simon: So now we'll just drill it and test it and
we'll find out what's in there.
Rich: Percentage right?
Simon: Percentage of purity.
It's gonna be somewhere in the neighborhood of
60 to 70 percent looks like.
Here ya go.
Rich: You're killing me.
Simon: Calculated to $3,530.
Rich: Yes, yes!
It turns out I made a profit of over two grand.
Simon: Congratulations.
Rich: Thank you so much.
Simon: Good job.
Rich: Thanks man, I'll see you soon.
Simon: Thank you.
Narrator: Diego melted down silver bullets for $500.
They only cost him $200, so he made a profit of $300.
Dave's catalytic converters brought in $768
after the $300 he paid for them,
he harvested a profit of $468.
And Rich's robotic arm was worth $3,530 at the melt.
After his $1,500 investment, he netted over two grand.
Rich: You still got those battery cables in your car?
Dave: Yeah.
Rich: I think I could get this thing running.
Perfect.
Can you hold on to that right there?
I think if I touch this to this,
it'll go, "bam!"
Dave: Really?
(bleep)!