The handheld device is most likely an XRF scanner, similar to this:
Portable XRF Analyzer Product Comparison Chart
These units work great, so long as you are using them for their intended purpose, and not expecting a quantitative analysis. Many require specific programing for the class of metals they are used for, so unless your scrap yard has purchased the programing for all metals, there might be other metals associated when your material is scanned that are showing as unknown. A trick the less reputable yards do is to claim that the XRF scanner/analyzer cannot read the other metals because they are not worth anything, when in fact they know the unknown metals are worth something.
Scott