Bare Bright Copper Price Today: The Top Grade, and What Disqualifies It

Bare bright is clean, uncoated, unalloyed copper wire of 16 gauge or heavier with a bright, untarnished surface. It earns roughly 95 to 98 percent of the exchange price at the refinery and sits at the top of every yard board. Anything thinner, coated, oxidised or soldered is a lower grade.

What bare bright actually means

The grade has a precise definition, and every word in it excludes something.

Bare means no coating of any kind: no insulation, no tin, no nickel plating, no varnish. Bright means the surface shows the pink-orange of fresh copper, with no tarnish, no green oxidation and no discolouration from heat. Copper means unalloyed, so brass and bronze are out. And by convention the grade applies to wire of 16 gauge or heavier, which is roughly the thickness of a coat hanger or thicker.

The ReMA specification calls this grade Barley. Export contracts and larger buyers use that name, and quoting it tells a buyer you know what you are holding.

Where bare bright comes from

Almost all of it is stripped cable. Heavy building wire, service entrance cable, welding lead and bus bar strip to bare bright when the copper underneath is clean and heavy enough. The battery cable page covers the arithmetic of whether stripping pays, and the stripping analysis puts the break-even near 48 percent recovery.

Bus bar from electrical panels qualifies if it is uncoated. Much of it is tin-plated, which drops it a grade.

Motor and transformer windings are usually too thin, coated in varnish, or both.

What disqualifies it

Four things, in order of how often they catch people out.

Tarnish. Copper that has been outdoors, in a damp basement or simply stored for years dulls to brown and then to green. Once the shine is gone the grade is number 1 at best, even though the metal is identical. The cleaning guide covers what restores a surface and what wastes an evening.

Coatings. Tinned copper looks silver and cannot be bare bright however clean it is. Varnished magnet wire from motors is out. So is anything with solder on it.

Gauge. Wire thinner than 16 gauge is number 2 regardless of condition, because thin wire oxidises faster and is harder to melt cleanly.

Burning. Copper stripped by burning off the insulation is discoloured, brittle and downgraded, and the practice is illegal in most jurisdictions. The burning page sets out why it costs money as well as breaking the law.

Bare bright against the other grades

The table above shows today's spread. In structural terms, bare bright earns roughly 95 to 98 percent of the exchange price at the refinery, number 1 sits two to five points below, number 2 a further five to ten, and light copper another step down. Across a typical yard board the drop from bare bright to light copper runs 25 to 35 percent.

That spread is why sorting matters. A bucket of stripped wire with a few tinned strands mixed in is paid as the tinned grade, not as bare bright. The grades guide sets out every grade in one place.

Getting the bare bright price

Five steps.

Strip it clean. The insulation has to come off completely, with no nicks that leave slivers of jacket on the strand.

Keep it dry and out of the light. Tarnish starts within weeks outdoors. A sealed bucket indoors holds the shine for months.

Cut a strand and check the end. Copper all the way through is bare bright. Silver outside and copper inside is tinned. Copper outside and silver inside is copper-clad aluminium, which is paid as aluminium.

Separate anything doubtful. One tinned strand in a bucket costs the whole bucket a grade.

Ask for bare bright by name. A yard that quotes only number 1 for clean stripped wire is either not grading carefully or not paying for it. Call another.

Bare Bright Copper prices around the world

Where bare bright copper comes from, market by market

Questions people actually ask

What is the bare bright copper price today?

The live figure is at the top of this page, derived from the exchange settlement. It is the highest copper grade on any yard board and moves daily with the benchmark.

Is bare bright the same as number 1 copper?

No. Number 1 allows clean pipe, bus bar and heavy wire that may be slightly tarnished or have been cut from fittings. Bare bright is wire only, uncoated, bright and 16 gauge or heavier. Bare bright pays a few points more.

Does tinned copper wire count as bare bright?

Never. The tin coating disqualifies it however clean the strand is underneath. Tinned copper is a separate grade and pays less.

Why was my clean wire paid as number 2?

Usually gauge. Wire thinner than 16 gauge is number 2 by definition, even when it is clean and bright. Thin appliance cord, phone wire and motor windings all land here.

Can I clean tarnished copper back to bare bright?

Sometimes, on heavy wire, with acid or abrasive cleaning. It rarely pays for the time on small quantities and never on thin wire, which stays number 2 regardless.

How much more is bare bright than light copper?

On a typical yard board, 25 to 35 percent. The table above shows today's exact spread.

What does Barley mean on a copper price list?

It is the ReMA code for bare bright copper wire. Berry and Candy are number 1, Birch and Cliff are number 2, and Dream is light copper.

Do I need ID to sell bare bright copper?

In most jurisdictions yes, with a record of the transaction and sometimes a photograph or holding period. Clean stripped wire attracts more scrutiny than any other grade because it is the form stolen copper most often takes.

Frequently asked questions