W.N.Thomas and sons is one of the leading traders of all grades of metals in the south east. We specialise in the buying and selling of all NON FERROUS and FERROUS metals.Metals that are accepted in solid, turning or dross form include copper, brass, lead, aluminium and stainless alloys.Vehicle batteries accepted with correct transfer notes.

All grades of non ferrous metals are also accepted including light iron, cast iron, oversize construction and steel cuttings. All these materials are processed and graded to our customers requirements. Please contact our buying team for current market prices.

• Steelmaking using the electric arc furnace process uses scrap metal as the major raw material. This method is typically used for high quality tool steels and stainless steel. Smaller quantities of scrap can also be used in basic oxygen (blast furnace) steelmaking.
• Copper scrap is used by both primary and secondary producers, where processing methods include blast furnace, reverberatory furnace or electric arc furnace. In the latter, around 75-80 per cent raw material is scrap copper.
• Aluminium production uses a single production method - the Hall-Heroult Process. But virgin raw materials require temperatures of around 900 C, whilst scrap aluminium melts at around 660 C.

Metals recycling protects the environment and saves energy. Using secondary raw materials means less use of natural resources which would otherwise be needed to make new metal compounds – such as iron ore in steelmaking; nickel in stainless steel; or alumina and bauxite in aluminium smelting. There are also considerable savings in energy, and reduced CO2 emissions, in production methods using recycled materials