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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;calcol, post: 2486866, member: 77639&quot;]First, zinc oxide is not &quot;highly toxic&quot;!&nbsp; It&#039;s an ingredient in diaper cream, which can have up to 40% zinc oxide.&nbsp; Most of the rest is petroleum jelly or some other innocuous compound to suspend the zinc oxide.&nbsp; Zinc oxide is also used extensively in sun-block and makeup.&nbsp; We wouldn&#039;t be putting something highly toxic on our faces or babies&#039; behinds.&nbsp; Zinc melters would want to minimize zinc oxide production, not because it&#039;s toxic, but in order to get a maximal yield of zinc.&nbsp; They can do this by using pots with minimal air surface per unit volume, not heating any longer than needed (saves fuel too), or flooding the top of the pot with nitrogen or argon.&nbsp; Main toxicity danger to melters would be doing stupid things, which some would do, like running the melting equipment in a confined space (hypoxia, carbon monoxide poisoning) or cooking acidic foods in the melt pot (zinc ion poisoning).</p><p><br /></p><p>The main use (55% in the U.S.) of zinc is for galvanizing steel, and that zinc can have 2% or so impurities. Melted pennies would probably work nicely.&nbsp; However, chunks of zinc from backyard melters would go to scrap dealers who would send it to large recycling plants to produce standard zinc ingots and other zinc products.&nbsp; After galvanizing, second biggest use of zinc is in alloys.&nbsp; Main alloy is brass, and brass is mostly a mix of zinc and copper.&nbsp; Zinc is also used for pot metal, often called die cast zinc.&nbsp; It&#039;s zinc mixed with smaller amounts of other metals, including ... you guessed it ... copper.&nbsp; Scrap dealers wouldn&#039;t feel a need to assay lumps of melted pennies.&nbsp; They&#039;d be able to tell at a glance.&nbsp; At large recycling plants, they would use a handheld x-ray fluorometer, which will readout the metal composition in less than a minute.&nbsp; These neat gadgets (I want one!) are still $15K and up.&nbsp; Too much for the average collector or dealer, but a reasonable expenditure for a metal processing plant.</p><p><br /></p><p>Back to finances:&nbsp; I said from the outset that melting pennies would probably not get underway until zinc price stabilized at about 10% over breakeven.&nbsp; Breakeven is $1.82/lb (there are 182 pennies in a pound), so going up 10% is about $2/lb.&nbsp; Our $10,000 in face (1million pennies which weights 2,500 kg or 5,500 lbs) will have $11,000 worth of zinc.&nbsp; That means if we can melt the zinc and get it to the scrap dealer for less than $1000, then we&#039;re money ahead.&nbsp; Even if the fuel for melting costs $200 (and it would be less than 1/10 that as I showed before), then we make $800 minus a little gas money for haulage to the nearest scrap dealer.&nbsp; If zinc went to $2.20/lb, then our profit more than doubles because expenses would be the same.</p><p><br /></p><p>At current inflation rates, I&#039;m estimating 20-30 years for zinc to go from its current $1/lb to $2/lb.&nbsp; So, most of us older collectors won&#039;t see it.&nbsp; Could go faster, depending on industrial need in developing nations.&nbsp; Zinc use by them was probably the main reason for the big hop in prices 2005/6. Hopefully, pennies in their current form will be discontinued in far fewer than 20-30 years. </p><p><br /></p><p>Cal[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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