Tungsten Carbide
Drill bits, mining inserts, dies, end-of-life tooling. Paid per kg on tungsten content.
Highest yield Learn more
Who we are
A Perth yard, an
audit-grade standard.
Family-owned, owner-operated, twelve years deep in WA specialty metal recovery. We started where other yards stop – with the tooling and alloys that get under-paid as “mixed scrap.”
The story
One shed in Malaga, then a whole-state service.
Drill Bits Recyclers opened in 2014 in a single shed off Pavers Circle, buying spent tungsten carbide off the back of drilling contractor utes. The pitch was simple: bring us the carbide nobody else weighs properly, and we’ll pay you per kilogram on element content.
Word travelled. Within two years we had the weighbridge in. By 2018 we’d added stainless, titanium, nickel and precious metals to the line. By 2021 we were running scheduled pickups from the Pilbara and Goldfields. Today we touch tooling, swarf and shutdown scrap from over 300 sites across WA – same paperwork on every one of them.
Malaga, 2024
2014 * Founded
A single Malaga shed
One operator, one ute, one element on the price list: tungsten carbide. Bought direct from drilling contractors at element content.
2016 * Weighbridge
NMI-certified 60t scale
In-ground weighbridge installed. Every load now arrives, sits, gets photographed and ticketed before sort.
2018 * Specialty range
Stainless, titanium, nickel, precious
Added XRF station
Niton XL5 PMI in-house
2021 * Regional
Pilbara & Goldfields routes
Scheduled pickup loops added. Bin and sealed container hire formalised. Pilbara, Goldfields, Mid-West, Kimberley.
2026 * Today
300+ sites, one yard
Tooling, swarf, shutdown scrap and decommissioning recovery from over 300 WA sites - with the same chain-of-custody PDF on every batch.
From the founder
Owner-operator
Matteo Burlet.
Director · Drill Bits Recyclers
I spent fifteen years driving rigs across the Pilbara and the Goldfields before I started Drill Bits Recyclers. The thing that bugged me was watching $40-a-kilo tungsten inserts go into a bin marked “mixed.” The smelter knows what’s in there. The contractor doesn’t. The yard takes the spread.
We built this yard to close that gap. Every load gets weighed on a certified bridge, every batch gets shot with an XRF, every contractor gets a sheet showing what was actually in their scrap before they sign anything off. The price reflects the metal, not a guess.
If the smelter knows what’s in your scrap, you should too – before you sign anything off.
– Matteo Burlet, Director
Why work with us
Why work with Drill Bits Recyclers.
Whether you bring us one drum or run us a multi-week shutdown – these four commitments are the same on every job.
Weighed
Every load
NMI-certified 60t weighbridge. Photographed and ticketed before sort.
Assayed
Every batch
Niton XRF for carbide & precious. PMI for stainless & nickel. Result before sign-off.
Paid fast
48 hours
EFT within two business days of you signing the assay. Cheque for walk-ins under $2k.
Audited
Every job
One signed PDF per batch - weighbridge, assay, downstream destination. NGER/GRI-ready.
What we do
Twelve services.
Three categories.
Everything fits under one of three buckets – the metal, the site, or the paperwork.
01 / Material recycling
Specialty Metals
The high-value alloys: assayed, sorted by grade, paid per kilogram on element content.
02 / Site & project
On Your Site
When the scrap can't come to us, we come to it. Crews, bins, containers - anywhere in WA.
03 / Compliance
Audit & ESG
The paperwork that lets your sustainability report stand up. Every batch traceable from gate to smelter.
What we recycle
The materials we pay top dollar for.
Traceability & ESG
Built for the long-haul,
not the next load.
The way Drill Bits Recyclers operates is the reason our paperwork shows up in your ESG report. Same physical service, wrapped in a chain of custody you can put in front of an auditor – and built around four standards we hold ourselves to on every batch.
Our standard, on every batch
- Environmental compliance
Drill Bits Recyclers operates to recognised Australian environmental standards – aligned with ISO 14001 and audited annually. That guarantees responsible handling of every material we recycle, at every stage from gate to smelter.
- Sustainable practices
We help businesses responsibly dispose of specialty metal scrap – tungsten carbide, stainless, titanium, nickel alloys – while generating revenue from material that would otherwise sit in a yard, and shrinking their environmental footprint at the same time.
- ESG focused
Our recycling solutions are built to deliver measurable ESG benefits – not just a rebate. Every batch comes back with the metrics your sustainability team needs: tonnage diverted from landfill, recovery percentages, and downstream destination disclosed.
- Recycling done right
We work directly with end-user smelters and refiners – no broker layer, no middlemen. That’s how we pay industry-leading rebates while keeping transport emissions low and stopping materials from bouncing around the globe before they get recycled.
Acknowledgement of Country
On Whadjuk Noongar boodja.
Drill Bits Recyclers acknowledges the Whadjuk Noongar people as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which our Malaga depot operates, and pays respect to Elders past, present and emerging.
We also acknowledge the many First Nations communities across the lands we work on – from the Pilbara to the Goldfields, the Kimberley and the Mid-West – and recognise their continuing connection to country, waters and culture.
Get started
Bring us your
first load.
Photos for an indicative quote within four business hours, or book a free yard walk-through. We’ll handle the paperwork.
WA-wide pickup • Same-day quote • Audit trail standard