The company also reclaims platinum from old aeroplane engines, palladium from the pharmaceutical industry, and even gold teeth. Like the carpet, much of the scrap Presman Mastermelt purchases come from jewellers up and down the country. "It's a surprise every time we do it", Gary remarks, showing us a glass dropper that's used to extract metal samples. The team incinerated the carpet in their furnace, processed the cremated remains and tested the recovered metal inside its laboratory to determine its value - resulting in Gary's team paying that £13k for it. By the time it arrived at Presman Mastermelt, it had become an unlikely treasure trove of gold, silver, and platinum. It had belonged to a jeweller's workshop, where it spent years absorbing 'lemel', the small shavings of precious metal left over from filing pieces of jewellery. Naturally, this wasn't just any old dusty rug.
Still, the actual figure of £13,000 is not to be sniffed at, considering the carpet in question is a second-hand one that came into the workshop covered in dirt. We oblige Gary with guesses ranging from a modest £5000 to £25,000, at which point he tells us to stop being silly. Things are a bit more flashy on street level.
Guarded by security, and hidden beneath a labyrinth of locked doors and narrow staircases, it feels a million miles away from the glittering window displays of engagement rings and diamond-encrusted watches that flank the street above us.
It's the first stop in our behind-the-scenes tour of the Hatton Garden area, the handful of streets in Holborn that have been at the heart of London's jewellery trade for over a century. We're standing inside the subterranean workshop of Presman Mastermelt, a scrap metal dealers where Gary is general manager.
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