Most people don’t think twice about the silver sitting in their drawers, workshops, or storage units. Old jewellery, broken chains, offcuts, filings, industrial silver, dental scrap. It all tends to get lumped together as “stuff I should probably do something with one day.”

Well, today might be that day. Because that silver scrap can be melted down, refined, and turned into brand new, investment-grade silver bullion bars. And with silver prices sitting at historically strong levels, there’s never been a better time to convert dead weight into real wealth.

At SMP Bullion, we offer a full silver refining and bar manufacturing service right here in Birmingham. Here’s how it works and why it makes sense.

What Counts as Silver Scrap?

You’d be surprised how much silver accumulates over time, especially if you work in the jewellery trade, manufacturing, or any industry that uses precious metals. Common types of silver scrap include:

Old or broken silver jewellery such as chains, rings, bracelets, and earrings. Sterling silver cutlery, candlesticks, and tableware. Silver offcuts and workshop waste. Lemels and filings from jewellery manufacturing. Dental silver and amalgam. Industrial silver contacts and components. Miscellaneous silver items that are damaged, unwanted, or no longer fit for purpose.

If it contains silver, it has value. And rather than selling it for scrap prices and walking away with cash that’ll lose purchasing power over time, you can have it transformed into something that holds and grows in value: a pure silver investment bar.

How the Process Works

Our bar manufacturing service is straightforward. Here’s what happens when you bring your silver scrap to us.

Step one: you bring in your scrap. Whether it’s a bag of old jewellery, a box of workshop offcuts, or a collection of miscellaneous silver items, you bring it into our Birmingham facility. We accept silver in all forms and conditions.

Step two: melt and assay. We melt your silver down and carry out a full assay to determine the exact precious metal content. This tells us precisely how much pure silver is contained within your scrap, regardless of what form it came in. There’s no guesswork involved. The assay gives you a clear, accurate picture of what you’re working with.

Step three: refining. Once we know the silver content, we refine the metal to remove any impurities, alloys, and base metals. The goal is to bring the silver up to investment-grade purity.

Step four: bar manufacturing. The refined silver is then cast into brand new bullion bars using LBMA-approved grain standards. What was once a pile of scrap is now a tangible, tradeable investment asset. Clean, stamped, and ready to hold or sell.

The whole process is carried out at our state-of-the-art facility with rigorous quality control at every stage. You’re not handing your metal off to some anonymous third party. It’s done in-house, by us, right here in the Jewellery Quarter.

What Does It Cost?

We believe in being upfront about pricing, so here’s exactly what to expect.

There’s a melt and assay fee of £50 per 10kg of silver. This covers the cost of melting your scrap and testing it to determine the precise silver content.

The refining fee is 10% of the metal value. So if your scrap contains £1,000 worth of pure silver, the refining cost would be £100. That’s it. No hidden charges, no surprises.

The minimum lot size for silver refining is 5kg. This makes the service particularly well suited to trade customers, jewellers, and anyone who has accumulated a decent quantity of silver over time.

Why Convert Scrap Into Bars Instead of Just Selling?

This is the key question, and the answer comes down to what you want to do with the value locked up in that scrap.

If you sell your silver scrap outright, you get cash. That cash goes into your bank account, earns next to nothing in interest, and slowly loses purchasing power to inflation. You had a tangible asset and you traded it for numbers on a screen.

If you convert your scrap into investment bars, you still have a tangible asset, but now it’s in a form that’s universally recognised, easy to value, and simple to trade. You’ve upgraded from a random pile of mixed silver into a clean, pure, investment-grade product.

Think of it as recycling with a financial upgrade. You’re taking something that’s essentially sitting idle and giving it a new life as a proper investment.

And with silver delivering strong returns in recent years and demand continuing to grow from both industrial and investment buyers, holding silver in bar form puts you in a much better position than holding it as scrap or converting it to depreciating cash.

Who Is This Service For?

Our refining and bar manufacturing service is designed primarily for trade customers, but it’s relevant to anyone with a meaningful quantity of silver scrap. That includes:

Jewellers and goldsmiths who accumulate offcuts, filings, and workshop waste as part of their day-to-day work. Rather than selling this scrap periodically at whatever price is on offer, refining it into bars gives you a more valuable end product.

Dealers and traders who buy scrap silver from the public and want to convert it into a more liquid, standardised product for resale or personal investment.

Estate clearance professionals who come across silver items as part of house clearances and want to consolidate them into a single, high-value asset rather than selling piecemeal.

Anyone who has inherited or accumulated a significant collection of silver items that they don’t want to keep in their current form but do want to retain the value of.

The Value of Holding Physical Silver

Silver has been one of the standout performers in the precious metals market over the past couple of years. Industrial demand, particularly from the solar energy and electronics sectors, has been running well ahead of new mine supply, creating persistent structural deficits.

At the same time, investment demand for physical silver has been growing as more people look for tangible assets that sit outside the traditional financial system. Silver bullion bars are easy to store, easy to value, and easy to sell when the time comes.

By converting your scrap into bars, you’re not just tidying up a collection of random silver items. You’re positioning yourself to benefit from silver’s ongoing price appreciation in a format that’s recognised and tradeable worldwide.

Why SMP Bullion?

We’re not just a refiner. We’re bullion specialists based in the heart of Birmingham’s historic Jewellery Quarter, with decades of experience in precious metals. Our bar manufacturing facility uses LBMA-approved grain and follows rigorous quality control procedures to ensure every bar we produce meets the highest standards.

When you bring your silver to us, you deal with us directly. There’s no outsourcing, no middlemen, and no waiting weeks for results. We handle the entire process in-house, from melt and assay through to the finished bar in your hands.

We also buy and sell gold and silver bullion, offer scrap purchasing services, and supply grain and other precious metal products to the trade. So whether you’re converting scrap into bars, buying investment bullion, or selling unwanted metal, we can help.

Get Started

If you’ve got silver scrap sitting around doing nothing, let’s turn it into something worthwhile. Give us a call on 0121 236 9844 or email sales@smpbullionanddiamonds.co.uk to discuss your requirements. You can also visit us at our Birmingham facility to drop off your scrap and talk through the process in person.

Minimum lot size is 5kg for silver refining. Trade customers can log in or register for an account to view full pricing details.

Your scrap has value. Let’s make sure it’s working for you.