Zinc Calculator – Work Out the Material Value of Zinc
Material Value · Zinc
2.77 £
1,000.00 g × 1 × 0.0028 £/g = 2.77 £
Buy-back price: The amount a dealer or refinery actually pays. This is typically 2–10% below the melt value, as processing costs and margin are deducted.
The sacrificial principle
Zinc is less noble than iron. If the two are in conductive contact and moisture is added, the zinc is attacked and the iron is spared — it acts as a sacrificial anode. This is the core of galvanising, and it is more than a coating: even where the coating is scratched, the surrounding zinc continues to protect the exposed spot.
The same principle is found on ship hulls, pipelines and hot water cylinders, where zinc anodes are fitted and replaced at regular intervals. They are wearing parts, and that is intentional.
For demand this means: zinc is literally used up. Unlike copper, which stays in the cable and comes back when it is dismantled, galvanised zinc disappears into corrosion over time. A large part never returns to the cycle.
Brass, die casting and the building season
The second-largest use is brass, an alloy of copper and zinc. Door fittings, taps, musical instruments and cartridge cases are made of it. The zinc content varies considerably depending on the grade, which is why the value of a piece of brass cannot be derived from the zinc price alone.
Then there is zinc die casting: complicated small parts that can be cast in large numbers because zinc melts at a comparatively low temperature. Lock components, housing parts, toy cars.
Because galvanising arises mainly in construction, demand follows the building season. March to June is historically the phase of strongest demand in the northern hemisphere; a wet spring visibly pushes it back. In the performance calendar this shows up as a cluster of green days in spring.
Why galvanised steel is not zinc scrap
The most common disappointment when selling zinc: a galvanised sheet is over ninety per cent steel. The zinc layer is thin, often only fractions of a millimetre, and cannot simply be peeled off. Anyone who weighs a galvanised part is weighing steel.
Real zinc scrap is solid parts: die-cast parts, old zinc anodes, zinc sheets from roofs, gutters made of titanium zinc. Here a calculation is worthwhile, and here a buyer pays by the zinc price.
As with all industrial metals, the exchange price applies to refined metal in tonnes. What a buyer pays is lower, because he has to have it sorted, transported and melted down. We deliberately do not give a percentage — it depends on grade, quantity and buyer.