Tips & Commentary from the Chairman of Star Refining

Dental Scrap Raises $50,000 for Smiles for Kids

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:14:09 +0100

Star Refining is a proud participant in the Sacramento District Dental Foundation’s ongoing Smiles for Kids program. Over the past three years the SDDF has raised more than $50,000 to fund free dental care for underprivileged children. The SDDF appealed to dentists to set aside extracted teeth and old crowns with precious metal content. Star Refining collects the scrap on behalf of the Dental Foundation, refines and sells the precious metal and the resulting cash proceeds are donated to the charitable Smiles for Kids program. Over 1000 needy children have been treated as part of the Sacramento program, and the concept is beginning to spread to dozens of other venues.

Three years ago a local dentist contacted Cathy Levering, Executive Director of the Sacramento District Dental Foundation to suggest she Appeal to Star Refining to see how we could help with the SDDF charitable Crowns for Kids program that was being set up to raise funds for the Smiles for Kids foundation. Jim Ryan, the Star Refining representative in Northern California let at the chance to participate in this worthwhile program. The program is a model of simplicity. Dentists collect extracted teeth and crowns and keep them in a scrap container earmarked for donation to the charity. The containers are picked up at intervals by a Star Refining Representative or sent to Star Refining for processing. Star pays top prices for dental scrap, so a large percentage of the value of the scrap is quickly converted to cash and turned over to the SDDF for distribution to the Smiles for Kids program.

During 2008 20,000 children were screened by school nurses from which 1000 children were selected to receive free dental care. In February, 2009 650 children suffering some periodontal disease and other severe cases of carries (some children could barely even eat normal food) were treated by a group of 600 volunteers, including 150 dentists.

Word soon got out to other Dental Societies in California about the success of the Sacramento program. It's easy for dentists to participate, there's no financial burden or work required when a dentist agrees to participate, and there's an incredible feel good factor when everyone involved sees that they are contributing to a program with such significant tangible results. Jennifer Stolo, Associate Executive Director of the California Dental Society Foundation heard about the program and decided to involve the CDA in promoting it to other dental societies within their group.

Michael O'Donahue, Development Director of Corporate Giving at the California Dental Society Foundation who has tirelessly promoted the Crowns for Kids program to all 32 dental societies under the CDA umbrella, and so far nine other dental societies have signed up to the program with 18 more confirming they will join pending ratification. A few months ago this was a little known program based on Sacramento but now it's spreading across California, and five other state dental societies want to institute similar programs in their territories. Over $55,000 was raised in three years in Sacramento alone. Extrapolate that nationwide and this could be the beginning of a movement that could raise several million dollars a year for an incredibly worthwhile cause. As the Chairman of Star Refining I'm proud to have been an early supporter of the program and applaud our representative Jim Ryan for recognizing the merit of the SDDF initiative.

Learn more by visiting the CDA and Crowns for Kids sites. The links are below.

It’s My Blog So I’ll Whine If I Want To

Mon, 5 Oct 2009 17:51:54 +0100

As I write this blog as I am travelling by plane with my wife Gina (who also heads up our groups marketing department) to Kansas City for several meetings. I have just paid $30 to the airline so they can take my bags hostage in the belly of the aircraft!! and while sitting here on the plane after the hassle of fighting the traffic from home to the airport, negotiating to and through security in now dirty soled socks, eating nasty food, drinking inferior coffee and sitting around a packed terminal building for the delayed plane to arrive I muse that there has to be a better way!
I have tried (and still do) video conferencing and although this works for some meetings more often than not I find myself wanting to impose myself a little more than the video cam will allow especially given my type A personality (so I am told by Gina) that I find the process frustrating. I think that most inceptive meetings should be face to face and then subsequently you can evolve to the little round ball with the unblinking eye that resides in or around your computer.
So this still leaves me with the need to travel, hailing from Europe where taking a train even between countries is easy, comfortable and reasonably priced I was shocked to find that this is not necessarily so here in the US where the connections need a professor of logistics to figure it all out and a trust fund to bank roll it, also the distances are vast therefore the travel times are in days rather than hours but I cannot blame anyone for that although I am seeking volunteers.
I recently attended a dental meeting in Santa Clara, California which is a four and half car drive from my home town, I found the whole experience extremely pleasant, for the first hour and then I started to get irritated at the never ending traffic congestion the insane drivers that managed to bribe their way to a driver’s license and the garbage that manages to get transmitted over the radio not to mention that every food stop has been photo copied and placed 20 miles further up the road next to the exponentially growing gas prices where it seems each oil company plays the ‘where else would you like to buy your gas, sucker’ game .
So as you can see my options seem to be limited and I have developed a great admiration for the early settlers that traversed the length and breadth of the country in wagon trains looking for a good place to stop and set up a metropolis so future generations could enjoy the same amazing view while driving through a McDonalds.
The simple answer to my initial question is that there is no other credible method of getting from point A to Point B if you wish to do it in a timely and cost effective way. Until we develop transporters ala Star Trek I am destined to display petulant behavior while in travel mode.
Did I also mention that I am scared of flying?

Lights, Camera, Action!

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:45:56 +0000

There is nothing I find more satisfying than creating a new idea on the back of an envelope and seeing the idea come to life. The process of selling the concept to my colleagues and fleshing out the idea as part of a team is especially rewarding.

I’m fortunate, as the head of my own company to have unrestricted creative freedom to think up new ideas, but there’s no guarantee my ideas will always fly with my compatriots. Therefore I’m always thrilled when the odd one or two of my ideas gets the green light and proceeds to the next stage.

This past weekend we filmed videos for two new products that will debut this fall, Quikset 5 and Wipe ‘n Refine. I think these are revolutionary new products, but I’ll let you be the judge of that. My point here in my blog is to share my opinion that the whole “concept to market” process is a business person’s biggest high!

There’s an entire separate emotional dimension regarding anticipation of thousands of customers endorsing my idea by buying the new products, and the fear that comes from knowing that customers don’t always share my enthusiasm. But if you are lucky enough to experience a runaway success, that’s the ultimate reward. I enjoy the collaborative effort of working with graphic artists, website designers, product engineers, marketing strategists and our sales team. The whole process is intoxicating, and like any addict I want more! If you see me leaving a restaurant with a big smile on my face maybe it’s because the food was good ... but probably it’s because clutched in my hand I’ve got a napkin with another idea sketched out over lunch with my colleagues!

Gold Rush!

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:51:51 +0000

Most people know about the California Gold Rush that started in 1848. But have you heard about the Great Mongolian Gold Rush of 2001? Or the Amazon Gold Rush of 2005?

Soaring gold prices prices are triggering modern-day gold rushes that many people probably thought were a phenomenon of the 1800s. Gold rushes, often triggered by a dramatic discovery of gold in remote areas, have been occurring at least since the time of the Roman Empire. But not many people realize that gold rushes still take place in modern times. Thousands of miners flocked to the cold Mongolian desert when a major gold deposit was discovered there in 2001, and as many as 800,000 artisanal gold miners were working the gold fields of the Congo in 2008!

If you work in the dental trades be thankful you don’t need to rush to Mongolia or the Congo. All you need to do to cash in on the high price of gold in call Star Refining!

Is Gold Still Used in Dentistry?

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:33:14 +0000

Absolutely! 70 tons of gold is used every year for dental restorations like crowns and bridges.
Alternative restoration materials like ceramics have improved in recent years and have been publicized as replacements for gold restorations. When I tell people outside the dental industry that my company recycles gold dental scrap I’m surprised how often people say “Oh, I didn’t think dentists used much gold these days!” We even hear about the dentist receptionists who say they throw out dental scrap because “we don’t see much gold any more.”

IT’S NOT TRUE! Gold is still considered the best, most durable and biocompatible material for many restorations. 70 tons of gold a year goes into people’s mouths! If any of that gold comes back out of mouths in your office DON’T THROW IT AWAY. Save it in a scrap bottle and call me!

Good Advice for Hard Times

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:49:55 +0000

Business conditions are getting tough.
So what are you going to do?

• Blame everyone & everything.
• Hope it will get better.
• Pretend everything is OK.
• Take up drinking!

Or ... you can get proactive and do whatever it takes to keep business coming through the door!

Business owners & managers quite rightly cut back on spending in tough times, but far too often we cut back on the wrong things. Cutting back on advertising, mailing and telephone sales is definitely a losing proposition. I have even seen insurance cancelled!

When business slows down it’s time to pick up the phone or better still visit your customers, press the flesh, buy lunch and reconnect. Send out bold and imaginative offers backed up and reinforced by a telephone call. Re-work your product to make it a little bit cheaper, then sell the hell out of it and get news items printed about your company. Project a positive message that your customers and prospects will respond to.

In a sea of negativity, positivity shines like a beacon. I have been there myself, but I was lucky enough to have a mentor who gave me this advice, and it helped my company to flourish in an adverse market.

I always remember one thing my mentor said “The only thing failure cannot cope with is persistence”. That’s good advice for hard times. Good luck to you!

The Treasure in your Dust & Dirt

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:25:54 +0100

Scrutinizing your assay report to see if the numbers and percentages add up is a worthwhile exercise, but if the same amount of time was spent analyzing where your scrap is getting lost and then collecting ALL of it for refining you would see a significant increase in your returns.
When was the last time you wiped down your kick boards with a wet paper towel, cleaned off the shelves above your bench, changed the air conditioning filters and checked for holes or fractures in the suction pipes of your vacuum system? Have you disconnected your pipes and emptied the content from between the concertina folds? These and scores of other tips can be found in The Good Scrap Housekeeping Guide that Star offers free of charge on our website (link).
Stories of Hidden Treasure
In 1998 in Dublin, Ireland Star recovered $43,000 worth of precious metal from a 200 square foot carpet found lying in the basement of a soon-to-be remodeled dental laboratory. The carpet had been on the floor of the lab for years and was about to be discarded. The son of the original owner had just taken over the business, and he wept when we told him the value of what Star found in that old carpet!
A further $15,000 was reclaimed by planing off the top 16th of an inch from all the old wooden benches and flooring. The moral of the story: Call Star Refining. Let us check it before you chuck it out!
In July 1988 in Southampton, England I was called to a small dental laboratory to pick up scrap from a retiring dental technician. Since 1956 when he started as an apprentice to his father he kept all the high grade bench dust in his attic, adding to it over the years. Two days before my arrival he emptied the numerous jars and containers--40 or 50 pounds worth--into an unmarked white bucket and placed it in a cupboard under the sink in the lab. When I arrived I found him sitting ashen faced on the doorstep. The cleaner had assumed the 'dirt' in the bucket was trash and had put the contents out for the garbage collector, who had picked it up that morning. My estimate of what he lost was in excess of $250,000 in today's values, and it still makes me sad to think of that poor man sitting there on his doorstep.
I've seen it happen too many times over the years, albeit seldom a loss of that magnitude. The lesson of this sad story: Clearly mark your scrap containers "DO NOT DISCARD". You don't need to spell out the nature of the contents, but the simple measure of marking your scrap container will hopefully save me the pain of one day finding you sitting on your doorstep with your head in your hands!
We regularly receive scrap shipments with the contents leaking out of holes in the box or shipping container. That's such a waste that it ought to be a crime! Especially when all you need to do is call Star--we'll send you free shipping containers that don't tear or leak!
Finally, how efficient are you at collecting your precious waste? Here's a quick rule of thumb: however much you use in alloys you should get about 10% of that back from your refiner.
For example, if you purchase an average 100 ounces of alloy a month you should expect to average 10 ounces of scrap recovered every month. Of course if you are using Star, we will do our best to recover 15 ounces for you!!

Gold Prices in Flux

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:30:58 +0100

How 15 days could cost you a LOT of money!
Greed has always been man's downfall. Trying to squeeze the last penny out of every deal is a recipe for disaster, and the precious metal market is no stranger to this syndrome.
Over the past 30 years I have watched otherwise sane, normal people become irrational in a bull market because they were obsessed with hanging on for a higher price, even though their metal had already reached or surpassed their original goal value.
2001— Greed Punishes Palladium Speculators
For example, when palladium hit $1094 per ounce on January 26, 2001 Star was excited to get the word out to our customers. To our surprise, many of our customers decided to hold out for $2000!
The price of palladium had been rising steadily for three years, giving Russia (the leading palladium producer) a strong incentive to unload a massive quantity of palladium sponge on the market. Soon after the price hit $1000 Russia started selling and within eight months palladium had fallen to $400 an ounce, less than half the January, 2001 value.
The lesson here is simple: SELL NOW while gold is high!
The "Real Value" of Gold
Given an excess of 3500 tons of surplus gold around the world the price of gold (in the abscence of speculators) should be around $5-600 per ounce. Sure, it could creep back up to over $1000, BUT there is a better chance that it will fluctuate up and down and eventually work its way closer to that $5-600 mark. That will SIGNIFICANTLY work against your present advantage.
What Happens if Gold goes DOWN!?
What happens if you are holding a lot of scrap when the gold market heads down? It takes 15 working days to process your scrap. If you wait until you see the market heading down YOU WILL LOSE, because your scrap is almost certain to lose even more value during the time it takes to process it.
Gold doubled in value since January, 2006. It's not going to double again by 2010, so it's time to TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN!
A Can't – Lose Offer from Tony
Not convinced? I'm going to make your decision easier with a can't-lose offer. You want to speculate? At least do it the smart way. Send us your scrap or bullion TODAY. We'll process it to our usual high standards, but instead of paying you the market price on the day we get the assay we will HOLD your precious metal until YOU tell us to sell—at which point you'll get the next day's London PM fix.
That way you can wait for any price you like, but if the market goes into free-fall you've eliminated the 15 day lag time, potentially saving you thousands of dollars of losses!
Please call any member of my team for details.
My advice: SELL NOW. Or at least let Star help you hedge your bet on the market.