Eastern Firm Buys Reliable Recovery Inc.

Pease & Curren, a Rhode Island precious metals refiner, has purchased Reliable Recovery Inc. of Anaheim as part of its plan to expand to the West Coast. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The newly acquired company will be known as Pease & Curren Reliable Recovery Inc.

Pease & Curren of Warwick, R.I., was founded in 1916. The privately held, family-run company recovers and refines gold, silver, platinum and palladium.

Reliable, founded about six years ago, primarily recovers precious metals from industrial solutions. Reliable’s founder, Lew Thorsen, will remain as president of the company.

Reliable’s services will be expanded to include the recovery and refining of metals used for jewelry, dental work and printed electronic circuit boards, according to Kip Curren, manager of Pease & Curren. In a telephone interview Friday, Curren said: “The facilities will be dramatically expanded in the next year.”

Reliable employs 11 workers, but Curren said he expects employment in the Anaheim plant to double in the next year or so.

Pease & Curren manufactures precious metals under its own brand name. The products are sold to jewelry manufacturers, electronics companies and others for use in a variety of products. The company, which employs about 50, also produces precious metals for sale to investors through banks, said Curren, whose grandfather founded the company with a partner 70 years ago.