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Reclaiming precious metal from circuit boards, etc.
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I work for a semiconductor research group and we do evaporations of precious metals as interconnects. Periodically, we clean out the evaporator and over the years we've collected several pounds of mixed metal. I'd say it's about 80% Au and the rest is Ti, Pt, Pl, Ge, Ni, Cr, W, and maybe a trace of other stuff. All the metals are from 99.9999% pure sources (not that it matters any more).
Anyone know of a place to refine or buy this stuff?
Dennis ScottUniversity of Illinois - Urbana, Illinois
-- I was a plating chemist for several years and recently have come into a quantity of surplus Gov. computers.... all out dated. Is it worth the effort to try to reclaim precious metals from them? I am not currently set up with a lab. Greg Austin- Toccoa, Georgia - I have a set of connectors out of a surplus computer control. They are gold plated with roughly .005 thick plating. I'm trying to find someplace to sell them. Any help would be appreciated. Robert Sawtelle- Carlton, Oregon |
-That must be an OLD computer, Mr. Sawtelle; the thickness you describe is more than 100 times as thick as today's standards :-)
But there are stores that buy gold in most cities, and you can find others on the internet googling for names like "cash for gold". Good luck.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey
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As do Greg Austin and Robert Sawtelle, I am in possession of a large number of old computers. Can anyone tell me if it is worth reclaiming the gold from the circuit boards and connectors and if it is how do I go about it. Thank you for any information you can give me. Carl Probert- Damascus, Maryland
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I have a 55 gallon drum with remnants of material obtained in the clean up of semi-conductor machines. Does anyone know what the value of this would be? Is it worth my while to pursue this?
Scott Miller- Las Vegas, Nevada
+Hello,
I would like to respond too the people interested in electronics recycling, I have been recycling computers and other gold bearing electronics for 12 years, I started out by sending my material out to be refined, after several years of being cheated and sending material from one place to another I learned how to do it my self, I have now been reclaiming the gold and other precious metals my self for 10 years. It does pay to recycle electronic scrap!
Any questions I will gladly answer.
Arnold Hoskins
Hamilton, Ohio
+This is for Arnold Hoskins, I am very interested in removing gold from chips and circuit boards, and then refining it myself,, where can I get some more information beside the Shor company,
Thanks,
Tim Hamilton
- Chico, California
++Arnold,
I would be interested in your methods. I have done a little with Aqua Regia and the glass/borax finish method, but have not had good luck with electronics scrap. I have monthly access to an average of 3-500 "old" pcs( 8086-486) that have no real value other than possible material reclamation. I would like to secure any good methods you have that work specifically with this type of application.
Thanks,
Richard P. Alcorn
- Cordell, Oklahoma
+++Mr. Arnold Hoskins,
I am also interested in learning more about your methods for electronics recycling. There is not much information available for efficient precious metal reclamation. Any information you provide would be very helpful.
Thanking you in advance,
Ed McBride
- Prattville, Alabama
+++Mr. Arnold Hoskins,
I was very interested reading your posting. I have a availability to several hundred dead boards and I have been cruising all over the net and all I seem to find in regards to this is for extremely large corporations. Any information that you could give me in regards to electronics recycling would be greatly appreciated sir.
Thank you,
Regards,
Cassandra Fredrick
- Gilmer, Texas
+++Any one could help me how to refine precious metal from PCB? Mr. Arnold Hoskins, in Hamilton, Oh, whose story is same as mine. And I like to learn how to do it myself.
Ivan Young, Lee
- Boroung-city, Korea
+++Mr. Hoskins hasn't been around this page for a while, but maybe someone will help. How much refinery experience do you have?
Ted Mooney, P.E.
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey
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Would you do me a favor.
As I mentioned on my mail, I am looking for a person who can show me how to refine precious metal from PCB. I like to build up a Burnout burner(=furnace) can handle approx. 2000 lbs a day.
Ball mill for that volume. after burn and grind, electronic refining for Cu, Ag and do Au in this order at last whatever the left over slimes, will do for Pd, Pt. Of course, I understood that it will not be a free.
Please, kindly advise me .
Thanks..
Ivan Young, Lee- Boroung-city, Korea
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Dear sir, I'm running my own small refinery. Wherein I do refine gold using aqua regia process. After reaction in aqua regia , gold is precipitated by SO2 gas or Na-metabisulphide. I'm getting the gold in powder form. but the problem I'm facing is I'm not getting the desired output. i.e the problem is if I have 10 kgs of 99.5 gold which is to be refined to 99.99 to 99.9 depending on requirement. By this I should get 9.95 kgs. of gold but I get 100-150 gms of gold less. I have checked all the process thoroughly several times . But I haven't found anything that is recoverable. Only the thing where I can check is the spent solution and wash water of gold powder. So I wanna to know about this process of recovering the gold from spent solution and wash water. Expecting your kindly answer as soon as possible. Thanking you, regards, Suraj Sharma- Shirpur (Dhule), Maharashtra, India |
+++Suraj, gold does not simply vanish. Possible solutions: The gold is not really 99.5% pure to start with. Not all the gold dissolved and some is in the residue after filtering. The gold drop was incomplete.
Chris Owen
- Houston, Texas
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Stripping metals from chloride solutions .
I recover gold from electronics. The only acid I use is aqua regia (HNO3/HCL). After precipitating the gold out of the solution, I have been adding aluminum to facilitate cementation of the remaining metals. The problem is that the Al is still in the acid at the neutralization stage.
Can I, instead of the alchemist-like Al cementing method, use electricity to strip ALL remaining metals from this chloride solution? I would appreciate advice in getting this process going. I have power sources ranging from 6V DC up to 24 V DC. Thank you,
William E [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]electronics gold mining - Midland, Virginia
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I need information and sources of chemicals needed for small to medium scale recovery of gold, silver, palladium and other precious metals, primarily from electronic scrap materials.
Gary Boehmprecious metals recovery - Hamilton, Ohio
February 14, 2008
I have a truck load of Circuit Boards with gold, does any body know of a company in CA that can recover the gold for me.
Adrian Torres- Corona, California
February 14, 2008That may not be phrasing the question quite exactly enough for the times, Adrian, where e-waste is a huge environmental threat. Better wording might be, who can responsibly recycle these circuit boards for me and give me money for them rather than it costing me money :-)
Crutchfield has a neat little widget at http://www.crutchfield.com/environmental-policy/recycling.html that will help you find recyclers.
See also letter 18889 for more discussion on recovery of components and precious metals from electronic scrap.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey
November 20, 2008
Hi All,
I work for a waste management company that has developed a process for PCB Recycling in 3 steps:
-Surface gold (fingers, connectors...) recovered by cyanide stripping and electrolysis.
-Removing of components from the board.
-Crushing and gravimetric separation of the copper and the resin/fiber glass from the board.
Now I am left with the components that I have to send to a refiner.
I would like to do the refinery of Gold from IC chips in-house.
The process that I have tried is as follow:
- Heating to make the Chips brittle
- Grinding in powder
- Dissolution of most metals (mostly copper) in Nitric Acid.
(no additional heat)
- Dissolution of Gold in Aqua Regia (+heating)
- Precipitation of Gold with SMS
I managed to get a small % only of the gold from the original chips.
I am looking for technical advise to improve the recovery rate..
Is the process workable?
What would be the ideal qty of chemicals for a typical IC
(20% Cu, 0.1% Au)
Thanks for your help.
- Singapore
November 5, 2009
I would like to have a gold reclaiming process( fingers/ P.C. motherboards) a non-chemist can follow. A simple and safe process please.
Eric McGheenovice - Omaha, Nebraska
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Ed. note: See also letter 18889 for more discussion on recovery of components and precious metals from electronic scrap. Also, put the term "gold recovery" into the search engine for many more discussions. Many people seriously question whether a safe process exists.
May 17, 2010
I am interested in stripping boards of their precious metal content using an electrolysis process. I am also a total newcomer to this subject. As I understand it, the electrolyte solution must also contain a salt of the metal that is being stripped, to start the process. As gold may be all over the place and in tiny areas of the board, I'm interested in knowing if there could be a substrate that could be applied to the entire rear of the board, making contact with all of the solder points, and in effect, turning the entire PCB board into a cathode once power is applied to the metallic substrate backer board? Would a copper sheet pressed against the rear of the PCB and affixed with clamps possibly work?
Dan Andersen- Port jefferson Station, New York
April 25, 2011
I get the feeling that most people that end up here are looking for quick, easy answers. I have been studying various aspects of E-Scrap precious metal recovery and come to some conclusions. One being that there are no quick, easy answers. Everyone wants to get rich or make a bundle on gold scrap recovery. Unless you can deal in large quantities ...OR...buy scrap gold directly from people such as pawn shops, etc., you're going to spend more on equipment and chemicals than you will yield at .999
Let's say you process 100 computers at a time, chances are whether you do the refining yourself or pay to have it done, it's not going to be cost effective or you will have such low yields by not having the proper processing equipment. Goldmining computer scrap is not going to make you rich...unless, you process several tons a week of CPU's. Printer boards are only worth the copper, tin and some lead or aluminum. You have to deal in quantities to really make a go at it. With that being said, if you are steadily collecting and acquiring early to mid 90's computer boards and chips and you carefully harvest every component from each board, then you might have something to appreciate a year or few later. So many people are driving up the prices of computer scrap thinking this is going to be the big one...but you end up having less to shine that the coins you paid for it. Make no mistake, if you are paying top dollar for computer scrap, you've already lost your profit. Scrap steel from cases are useful ($0.08lb), copper from transformers and motors is worth $0.22 per#, Aluminum heat sinks are worth about $0.50-.80 per#, CRT's are revenue negative if you are processing small scale. Platinum, silver, rhodium, palladium...everybody wants to ask someone that knows how to get it and what to look for. Unless you spend some time working in a refinery, chances are you won't get the full scoop...just bits and pieces. Unless you move truckloads at a time to refineries, you won't come out on top. What kind of health risks are you taking breathing sodium cyanide fumes and other noxious deadly gases, hope I don't live next door to you, neighbor!
Research & Development - Lubbock, Texas
May 2, 2011
I put carbide saw tips in cicular saws for sawmills and I end with silver solder grinding dust. I save it and want to know if it is worth anything?
Ronald Barnessawfiler - Tionesta Pennsylvania U.S.
November 20, 2011
To Mr. William E:
I have been involved in recovering precious metals for some time now
on a small scale. I am very interested in recovering the valuable
materials out of circuit boards on my own without having to be
cheated. There seem to be more and more criminals out there who are
ready to take advantage of the hard working honest man.
In answer to your question I read somewhere about an electrolysis
method that used a chemical bath and rods inserted into the end of the
container that would attract the gold particles to it once the waste
material had been dissolved. I am sorry I don't still have the link
but I am sure that a little google research will turn it up.
I would be very interested in sharing any information we find on the
subject that will help us in our goals. Together we may have a good
chance.
Please reply and we can succeed together.
- Stanley, North Carolina, USA