The Art of Turning Waste Material Into a Valuable Commodity:An Inside Look at the Gemark Corporation

By Karen Fuller

Investments. Recycling. Energy. Pollution reduction. Regulation compliance. These are several driving forces for precious metal recovery. As lavish as the benefits sound, many organizations know little about the metal recovery and refining process. Or, for that matter, the types of material we use daily that may have precious metal content. Dick Donovan, Gemark Corporation's COO says, “many companies do not consider refining because they are unaware that their material may have silver content or gold content, so they just send it out to a landfill,” He adds, “the key thing is that refining has two benefits to businesses—full destruction and a return.” Meaning that companies that use recovery servicesshould be compensated for the metal based on the content recovered. What does your company use during the day-to-day operations that have a precious metal content? If you send your material to a precious metal refiner, how much do you know about how material is handled? What happens to material that contains sensitive information? What philosophy and values drive a precious metal refining company? This insight will determine not only how we look at this industry, but the world around us, the products we use daily and how security is maintained. Here is an intimate look inside one of the most important industries in our era. Our focus is the Gemark Corporation.

An Inside Look at the Gemark Corporation

THE SHRED-TECH MDS-35 In 1981 entrepreneur Mario Batelic conceived his American dream, the Gemark Corporation. And, for the past 20 years, his company has provided precious metal recovery and refining services for companies around the world. Today, the company processes various material, including:

X-rays from manufacturers, diagnostic labs, hospitals, and clinics

Media (microfilm, microfiche, cd's and film on reels)

Light bulbs containing silver

As the company has grown, new services have evolved. With all of the services Gemark provides to the banking, medical, printing, and movie industries, it is still on a mission to make sure that every step of its precious metal refining process includes high levels of security to protect customer material that houses confidential information, as well as produce high quality material so their customers can gain the greatest return.

Gemark's transportation Tactic
In 1996, Gemark made the decision to provide all transportation services for thier customers. Today, Gemark's Land Service performs all material pickups without the use of outside transportation services. “Initially, our goal was twofold: one, we did not want a third party handling the materials and, two, we wanted to keep our own schedule,” said Trudy Batelic, administrator.

Gemark uses certified drivers who pick up the material at the customers' locations. “In this way, we are in control; we are using our own drivers and our own equipment, so the delivery is secure,” said Batelic.

“Once the seal is placed on the truck at the client's location, there is no chance of tampering,” adds Dick Donovan, Gemark's COO. The seal is broken when the truck delivers the customer's material to Gemark's plant site. While the material is en route to the Gemark plant, Gemark has a rapid emergency response team assembled in the event of any problem, such as an accident. This rapid response team also eliminates the risk of someone gaining access to the customer's material while the truck is disabled, because only Gemark personnel and contracted partners are involved in the repair for assistance if something happens to the original truck or driver.

Plant Operations
Once the material is picked up from a customer's location, it is delivered to Gemark's plant where it is unloaded and weighed under tight security.

The plant's loading and unloading entrances are protected by gate access, and each building has security camera surveillance operated by trained staff members. Also, tapes of the security surveillance are maintained, so if any problems occur, the tapes can be viewed. All doors are kept locked at all times, and staff members are given access only to areas where they perform their jobs. Access is by coded door keypads, and an alarm will sound if anyone attempts to enter where he or she is not authorized.

Managing the Refining Process
Providing the end result for Gemark's customers depends on skill, knowledge, and the science of precious metal recovery and recycling. “Selecting the proper technique to handle customer material depends on the category,” Donovan says. “You can think of the types of material Gemark receives by two categories: precious metal bearing material and non-precious metal bearing material,” he adds. Precious metal bearing means the material has silver or gold content. The forms of material can include x-rays, CDs, microfilm, microfiche, or any media that has information stored on it. Non-precious bearing materials include media, magnetic tapes, VHS tapes, and cassette tapes.

And, according to the Silver Institute, the precious metal is contained in various commodities or merchandise such as centrifuges, x-rays, microfilm, microfiche, tooth fillings, VCRS, computers, commemorative coins, bullions, jewelry, batteries, windows, eyeglasses and much more. Precious metal such as gold and silver even plays a role in solar energy collection. Depending on the refiner, each precious metal recovering company has designated what type of metal it accepts. Some precious metal refiners may specialize in electronics or strictly aluminum products whereas others such as Gemark focus on silver, gold or polyester material.

Once the material is identified, the type of process, wash or incineration, is determined. “The advantages of washing or incineration, as opposed to dumping in landfills or shredding, is that either of the two processes offers complete destruction of information,” says Donovan. If precious metal bearing material and precious metal on a plastic has value, the material will go through a cleaning or wash process. An additional factor to consider when deciding on the process is if the precious metal is pure, which means it has not been intermingled with other material. If, indeed, the metal is pure, it goes through the wash process, during which the silver is removed from the plastic. As an added security measure, as well as a standard operation's process, before scrap material undergoes the wash process, all material is chopped and shredded.

Next, the chemicals are mixed in to liquify the material and form a sludge. The content is then smelted and incinerated to form an ash product. From this ash, a sampling is taken to analyze and measure the silver content. Analyses are conducted onsite and samples are retained on site. Gemark performs standard assay techniques, fire assay and wet assay. “Both of these assaying techniques have to be within a small percentage of each other or they are rejected and retested,” says Batelic.

The assay process is how Gemark determines the value of the amount of silver retrieved from the scrap material. The assay accurately measures the silver content. Then, Gemark provides a value and payment or a settlement to its customers that owned the metal.

The type of material refined, recycled or incinerated, drives how it is sold into the market as a commodity. In the case of plastic, purified polyethylene teraphthalate (PET) material or polycarbon, it undergoes the wash process, and is recycled. The result is a bulk product that is sold and used in the photographic, manufacturing and construction industries.

Then, there is non-precious bearing material such as magnetic tapes and various other media. The plastic and metal are separated into a plastic stream. The scrap is sold and the media is incinerated into an ash. In the case of silver bearing or gold bearing material, the final product (ash) undergoes additional processes to produce gold or silver buillion.

Measure What Counts
There are many benefits of recycling and document destruction: they keep down operating costs, renew storage capacity, and help reduce environmental pollution. That is why companies continue to use the services offered by Gemark. And, in order to reach out and service the customers' needs, employee training is a key component.

Even though training goes a long way toward effectively performing a job, it also is a great approach to teaching and reinforcing company security and privacy policies. Within the past month, “an outside trainer instructed our employees on internal security policies and common sense security practices,” said Batelic. Making the right information available to employees helps them understand the company's policies and gives them the tools to know how to handle work-related privacy and security issues.

Like most companies, Gemark places a strong emphasis on background checks. According to Batelic, “standard criminal records checks, drug screens, pre-employment screening, random checks, and previous employment verification are conducted.” And, since the company incorporates measures to protect customers' conf idential information, Batelic adds, “We do not hire individuals with felony backgrounds, such as shoplifting, larceny, or burglary.”