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Letter 18889 page 3 Removing gold from electronics1 2 3
May 10, 2006 I've got about 15 lbs of gold plated circuit boards, Does any one have the specifics on how to glean the gold from them.I understand the concept of reverse plating but the specifics and chemicals are the unknown factor. If you know, Please post for me Allen Seabridge
May 21, 2006 To Mr.Panjala Mukesh, Can I use another substitute from sodium
meta nitro benzene sulphonate at Mr.Panjala Mukesh' methods? Ahmet Yasar Turan
June 5, 2006 How to get gold from CPUs? I want to know about how I can extract gold from CPUs of mother boards? Syed Sajid Ali
June 27, 2006 Hello I live in Tennessee and I have a large amount of computer boards and I'm looking for a dealer to sell them to can any plz give me a listing of dealers near me? Thomas Thurman
July 27, 2006 I need to find all of these people who are recovering gold from
scrap in their basements. As an environmental professional and
remediation specialist I could make a fortune! Jim Hensch
August 13, 2006 I have hundreds lbs of PC boards, CPUs, memories, etc. from scrap computers, I like to find gold refining/recovery firms near my place, New York, New York,and I can send them for gold bars. Edward Lee
September 8, 2006 Under optimal conditions and following precise step by step instructions, approximately 1 oz. of gold can be recovered from approximately 15 lbs. of older ceramic CPUs and connector edges in Aqua Regia. Charles Rogers
September 23, 2006 Hello, Please read this to the end before attempting this process. I use this set up: use 1 quart of HNO3 (nitric acid 70% technical grade) delude to 50% , soak one kilogram of computer CPUs in the solution for a period of time till the CPUs legs are fell off the ceramic or fiber backing, please do not agitate the solution. What this is doing is removing the silver solder that bond legs to CPUs backing. Filter the gold legs with coffee filter or you can use old pair of panty hose which should not be affected by the acid – caution solution is acidic! Add table salt to the solution after you filter the gold out to recover silver chloride, it will be in the form of white flakes. You can refine gold in aqua regia by washing the gold legs in the hot water to remove silver salts, this is important because silver will lock the gold in aqua regia! What that mean is gold will not come out from aqua regia; it will be difficult to droop out gold from the aqua regia! Next mix the acids: 30% by volume (70% nitric acid) and 70% by volume (35% hydrochloric acid or muriatic acid). I use 300 ml of 70% nitric acid and 700 ml of 35% hydrochloric acid and it is working. Now you made the aqua regia - caution this solution is extremely acidic! Use 1 quart of aqua regia per 140 gram of gold legs. Don't use more then 140 gram of gold per 1 quart of aqua regia! I don't have time to explain why. Dissolve the gold, if it is not dissolving fast for you heat it a bit (90 F – 160 F) but not more than that, and please do it outside or under fume hood. I don't have time to explain why. After all your gold is in solution you need to mix one more think to neutralize the aqua regia; dissolve one and a half pound of urea in one quart of hot but not boiling water then add to the aqua regia till it will no longer fizz – bubble. Congratulation! You neutralize aqua regia. To precipitate gold from the neutralized aqua regia you going to need one to two teaspoon of sodium sulfite for each ounce of gold metal dissolved. Gold will come out of off the solution and settle on the bottom as brown particles that look like mud, this is 99,9% fine gold. This set up works on CPUs I don't know if it will work on everything. Paul Prisyazhnyuk
October 18, 2006 Since there is so little gold on the copper traces and wires, why
not consider the gold a slight impurity and ignore it? Scrape/clip of
the copper wires, melt the wires down and cast it as copper. Copper
is not a cheap metal. It has to be WAY more valuable than the gold,
and all it takes is heat to melt it. Christopher Stubban
November 14, 2006 I agree that using powerful acids is far too dangerous and costly
for the small business, home business, hobbyist market. Especially
when considering making a profitable enterprise. Tony Wallace
December , 2006 Regarding that "HUGE profit margin", Tony, I think you'll find "The grass is always greener . . ." But why don't you contact the manufacturer and get a license to distribute or manufacture the units and the chemistry on your side of the world and participate in the larceny? Despite any "safety and simplicity" justifications anyone advances, this website is not about to collaborate in the theft of trade secrets :-(
January 6, 2007 What about gold melting pots, is that a way to melt the gold off circuit boards? Jon Jackson
February 11, 2007 I would like to know how I can find large lots of scrap computer
parts for precious metal recovery (refining) excluding Ebay? I have
read questions on this site that people post who want to know how
they can refine computer scrap because they have an endless supply
(supplier). Can someone let me know the secrets to obtaining all that
scrap for free or at little or no cost? I have done a lot of research
gold refining and will share it with anyone. If you have solid karat
gold scrap for refining such as 10 k, 14 k, 18 k, 24 k, solid gold
jewelry (unplated), aqua regia method will not work. Aqua regia is
for gold plated items only. You could use the Simplicity gold
refining system for your solid gold items. Jamie Bedgood
March 6, 2007 Actually solid gold can be done by aqua regia, I don't care what
you read, I do it. I use aqua regia (now sub zero) Check ishor.com
for solid gold, gold filled, circut boards, memory, ic chips,
processors and anything non metal based plated. Mike Blessing
March 16, 2007 Hey guys, Joel Kovac
March 20, 2007 American manufacturers have found it exceptionally difficult to compete against China, where skilled labor is available at 1/10 the cost. More than half of all e-waste goes to China where the desperate, who are unable to land those good jobs that pay 10%, illegally refine this stuff on street corners and front porches to try to survive. You can smell the towns from miles away. Go to ted.com/tedtalks and search for the presentation by Ed Burtynsky, which is fabulous; one of the things it includes is the photos of these desperate people, their polluted towns and acrid air, their streets paved with e-waste. If you want to compete in the free market against people who are scratching in the dirt to survive, and who would be elated if they could have hope that their children might someday make 10 percent of American wages, then reclaiming e-waste may be for you. I guess it's hard for those of us who don't have gold fever to understand what it's like :-)
April 9, 2007 I am interested in recovering copper from electronic scrap, it
seems to me that there is more copper in pcb's then gold or
silver. Richard R. Conway
April 10, 2007 Look....I read all the responses from this site and questions...I come to this conclusion....gold from computers has to be worth it. The free world is ALL collecting this stuff... and China is buying the computer boards whole by the container...and I have seen with my own eyes gold bars being loaded onto a bank truck in a SCRAP YARD...yes...gold in a scrap yard locked up...who would guess....now it is obvious the newbies like me do not know the full extent of this...but something is up here...just like the guy talking about CAT CONVERTERS....actually they are over a $100 US and smelted worth a $ 1000.....now this gold stuff is the same thing...before years back car scrap was everywhere, and all shops said please take it away..NOW,,everyone knows about it and stealing them off cars....the people that know about computer scrap are not making the same mistake...they are shutting up and getting rich...think about it...But one thing for sure,,soon it will come out because WAY too much interest now. But then will be hard to get a scrap computer....everyone will be selling scrap...just like cars...cars that don't run and roted,,people still don't give them away....These people who know and read this know what I am talking about....and they are not going to say didly squat to anyone...think about it would you if you have a sure thing...I DON"T THINK SO.....so you know what....get a real job or hobby and forget it...unless you get one of these guys and choke them..LOL....and maybe they will tell you...then ok...good luck everyone..because anything to do with money....is called good luck..... Robert Talarico
April 10, 2007 The world also trades in sand, gravel, and manure, Robert. That doesn't make them precious. Do yourself the favor of reviewing some podcasts or videos of disabled Chinese people living in squalor and recycling this garbage. A very short lifespan, a constant eye-watering stench, living outside of the law, polluting their streets, and a few cents an hour are their reward for this recycling work. You are welcome to it. As for "secretive", there are numerous peer-reviewed books, going back many decades, to tell you everything about precious metal recovery--there is nothing the least bit secret about it. There probably is a scam element to it when people suggest it is a road to riches and only they can guide you on that road.
P.S. Maybe the best way to learn this field is by on the job training? Opportunities for that are shown in this film:
April 18, 2007 This is for all questioners and respondants to this "topic". Jonathan L. Boyett
April 29, 2007 Gday all, Craig Ferguson
May 2, 2007 HI EVERYONE,,I JUST FOUND THIS WEB-SITE-SO COOL---MY QUESTIONS ARE--FIRST OF ALL I KNOW NOT A THING ABOUT GOLD..I HAVE CAME ACROSS ALOT OF COMPUTERS BROADS..QUESTIONS ARE,,I THINK THE GOLD PINS ARE PLATED??? BUT I HAVE ALOT OF SILVER ONES ARE THESE WHITE GOLD?? I ALSO NOTICE ALOT OF BLACK THINGS ON THIS BROADS[[BOXES]]SHOULD I TAKE THESE OFF THE BROADS I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT THESE ARE CALLED IS THEIR GOLD IN THESE???DO THE BOARDS THEM SELF HAVE GOLD IN THEM??? SHOULD I TAKE THE TIME TO BRAKE THE BOARDS UP???? I WOULD LIKE TO THANK ANYONE WHO COULD HELP ME WITH MY QUESTIONS--THANKS MICHEAL AHL
August 25, 2007 Get rich quick or die trying .... I think its the latter in this case, the environmental costs of these idiots setting fire to circuit boards all over the planet beggars belief! Colin Colboy
August 22, 2007 Can I use DC current to extract the Gold from a NX stripper(base)that has Potassium Cyanide in it to strip the gold that has become heavily laden in gold stripped from plated terminals and circuit board connectors.If so, do I need to pacify the cyanide before removing the gold. I hope to plate the gold to a piece of stainless steel bar and melt the gold from it in a crucible to pour into a mold. Steve Caldwell
September 2, 2007 I've come across lots of information detailing the methods of recovery of various precious metals, including gold/silver/PGMs from electronic scrap. Personally, never tried it, never will. It is not worth the time, expense, effort or inherent dangers to attempt this on a small scale. Some people trying to sell you certain books will try to convince you that it can be done by anyone in your basement or garage. But, they're trying to sell you a book. I have a question, though... Where are you guys getting all this computer/telcom/electronic scrap??? I've read several posts from folks saying they have tons. I'd love to know how I could get my hands on some. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. Tom Banks
September 4, 2007 It depends what town you live in, Tom. In some towns the citizens are encouraged to take any stuff from the town dump that they feel they can reuse -- and that includes old radios, telephones, computers, TVs, and stereos.
September 21, 2007 To the general public knowledge: PMG recovery is cut throat
business. Paul Prisyazhnyuk
I'll probably be accused of being in cahoots with the major refineries because people can be pissy when someone tries to discourage them from what they want to do; nonetheless . . . One of the problems with e-waste is that amateur recyling is a wrecking ball that scatters the toxic materials everywhere. Add to it that the cost of recycling the whole item is so close to break even that when 'cherry picking' like this is done, the rest of the toxic waste remains unrecoverable and scattered everywhere. This video, and there are dozens like it from every major environmental organization, explains why leaving the computer whole is a central ingredient in gaining control over the e-waste problem: Crutchfield has a nice little widget on their website at http://www.crutchfield.com/environmental-policy/recycling.html that lets you plug in your zip code and get a list of recyclers.
September 22, 2007 hey people what melts metal, da?? jerry scraper
September 22, 2007 Everyone is wanting the same thing and that's just to do this as cheap as possible and as safe as possible. I can tell you a way that is very cost effective and very safe. One chemical to buy and it gets the gold off the PCB and then you can reuse the chemical to do more. It doesnt work on the cpu's but it is very good on any of the memory or circuit boards. Very simple folks go to RADIO SHACK and get a bottle or 2 of etching solution for around $4.00 a bottle and then soak the gold PCB parts in it, the gold floats to the top. What this is doing is melting away the copper under the gold and there ya have it. Now strain the gold and move on to the next set. I have tried many ways and this is the easiest and safest for the boards. The rest isnt enough to mess with I sell them and take what I can get for them. John Wilson
December 23, 2007 Okay - I am a retired(?) male with average intelligence and a huge factor of curosity. I have been for years taking old computers and tearing them down for the precious metals and such. Recently I have read so much on chemical extractions and such that I thought maybe I would try that. I did purchase some nitric acid, hydroclore and several other types. THEN I sit myself down and had one heck of a talk with myself. Result - the acids stay in the bottles and I continue doing what I have been doing. I dont figure the risk of using the different acids are worth the returns. Instead I do take the boards and clip off the connectors, then I use either a small sharp chisel or such to take all the parts off the boards. Then I reverse the boards and chisel the protuding ends level with board. Now I have a board that is easy to work with. By taking a single edge razorblade, I can strip the board of the gold and silver or such. These stripings I put into a clear plastic bag and at my leisure, I further check the stripings and cut off any solder or such. Then I melt the whole deal after weighing the stripings to about l oz or a little better. True, I don't get 99.9% pure but it does give me a good feeling to see the gold buttons. I have taken the buttons to a jeweler and he sort of off-handed gave me an appraisal of the button which he said would probably be about 75% of value. Of course, the button has other materials mixed in such as a few drops of mercury, a little tin, a bit of silver, etc. But the end result is, I have some gold and silver buttons and they are worth what I want them to be--that is, since I have SS and retirement, it is great to see the buttons and have given me a tremendous amount of self-satisfaction with the obvious dangers of killing/maiming/disabling myself trying to get a few bucks off the board. Best part is, I don't have a lot of money wrapped up, I am not hurting the land/air/water and I have a lot of enjoyment. So, having said that, let me recommend that, unless you are willing to take a little over a long period of time, leave the acids, the burning, the dropping, etc. with the professionals and be happy with the realization that you can get what you want without hurting yourself. Charles Ottaway
February 8, 2008 Could you not just scrape the gold off of the pins or melt it down? I believe the melting point of gold is around 950 to 1000 degrees centigrade. The other pmetals and plastics would melt well before the gold would they not? Stephen
February 11, 2008 charles; I too am in to the safer side of this spectrum and am interested in some more of your input. iv`e read every word of this letter and i am exited that someone out there feels the way i do, peeling the gold plating off the boards is personaly a novle ideah iv`e done it and its not that hard once you get the hang of it! what i would like to know is where would be the best place to sell my stuff? jerry seifried
February 19, 2008 After reading these letters about people possibly hurting or poisoning themselves by trying to recover gold and other precious metals from PCB's and other scrap electronics, I would also like to point out that even crushing or smashing integrated circuits to gain access to precious metal can be hazardous. The packages of some high power transistors and integrated circuits are made from poisonous materials such as arsenic and breathing the dust or even getting it in your eyes or mouth can cause health problems over time and repeated exposure. Taking these parts to proper facilities is very good advice. Vern Evens
February 19, 2008 I have dissolved some computer chips in aqua regia. then I added urea to neutralize the nitric acid. after that i added the sodium metbisulfate to extract the gold but nothing happened, just some white sediment on the bottom. iIcan not figure out what I did wrong, maybe there was solder in the mix. I do not know. please if anyone can help me out, it would be greatly appreciated. Syzmon Wysocki
March 1, 2008 DO NOT-EVER!! SEND YOUR SCRAP TO A REFINER- YOU WILL ONLY BE PAID
FOR ABOUT 40%-60% OF WHAT THEY RECOVER!! CHECK THE FBI INVESTIGATIONS
OF THE LAST 16 MO.- THESE COMPANIES ARE CROOKS! Russ Craver
March 1, 2008 There are honest and dishonest people in every field, Russ; but giant corporations entrust their millions of dollars of precious metals to refiners. But it's also true that it's hard to appraise the value of metals you are sending to a refinery, so the operators probably do have a stronger temptation to cheat than most businesses.
March 5, 2008 Ted, I agree. But, the honest ones- ARE honest when dealing with
BIG corporate $$$. If you're not BIG corporate- you are screwed- for
now. At least until- several refiners go to jail. Russ Craver
March 7, 2008 I want to know where can I find a computer salvage lot.I wanted to get scrap computer parts.Thanks Andrew Tiong
March 22, 2008 So the best way to make any money off old e-waste as I read these many posts is to find a cheap or free source of computer parts and sell them on ebay for the people who do want to take all the risks? What is the realistic or average take (how much would I probably make as gross) by selling on ebay, if the buyer gave me a fair price for the parts? (Plus they pay for the shipping) Craig Whitehead
I am a University student who has acquired several hundred pounds of WWII electronic parts made of silver or with a high silver content. I want to get the silver from these parts in the most efficient and economical manner possible. I have thought of using the parts as the anode in a plating process and "plate OUT" the silver...is this possible? Bill Farrell
HI HINAI RAEES
April 27, 2008 Regards to all those thinking of refining gold from computer scrap and do not want to use chemicals the amalgamation process is one that I use and have very good results from its very simple and chemical free. The basics are this after reducing the computer boards from any excess metal parts like aluminum or tin conectors and excess chips ( ceramic that contain gold wireing ) i then emerse the boards fingers pins and crushed chips into an amalgamite mixture which a metal mixture ( lead free ) that has been heated in a cast iron pot to melting temp the amalgamite absorbs all precious metals the scrap base metals board material and such collects on the top as slag once the amalgamite has absorbed its weight in pm it will become very thick temps have to be watched carefully as the amount of heat to keep the mixture melted will raise as the percentage of pm is absorbed. Once fully saturated the dore (amalgamite and pm) is crushed and then cupled to remove the amalgamite from the pm which will bead in the center of the cupel. Once the pm is recovered i sugest having it refined by pros. By my calculations the percentage of gold on older computer boards is roughly 1% less as the age decreases. if you have a large supply of eloctronic scrap you can actually make a good amount of money without doing anything visit ebay and look at the prices people are getting for thier scrap by those of us that are more experienced at recovering the pm for example one auction for a 20 lb box of parts went for roughly 500.00 the main point is be safe there are fumes that are very harmfull to you and others even with the no chemical method of amalgamy the resigns and boards will smoke when the pm are being separated into the amalgamite mixture which by the way is way cheaper than chemicals. Floyd Greene
HI Hina Raees
May 19, 2008 Well just call me a dumb redneck, I took everything on the circit
boards, cracked open processors, smashed circits, all the gold plated
pins, plug inns, memory cards, sound cards, video cards,name it if I
thought there was gold in it, on it, around it, near it, I even
melted green coating from the mother board with a low temp with a
torch, then peeled off the circit mess off the board,well no gold on
that I found out, I put everything in a metel bowl 9 inches around
and 4 1/4 deep, and put a cutting torch under it adjusted the torch
so it wouldn't meltd the bowl, all the pins never melted, all that
mesh never melted, anything silver and gold and any lead melted
first, I poured it out into another bowl and started melting again,
Yea I got gold, yep sure did, from all the parts I used I ended up
with 1.75 grams, it was fun,but cost me more in fuel for my cutting
touch, and waisting a day melting, waisted all my time saving all
that junk for a 1.75 gram, took a day,aprx $70.00 worth, I make a
$150 to $200 a day painting houses, hey I lost money, So I got smart
started buying gold in 1/2 grams coins and in 1 grams bars, and save
it let it make me money instead of costing me money, take the advice
from a Redneck, just go buy some gold and wait tell it increases in
value and sale it, or just get a loan on it.after all who won't loan
on gold it's gold, take $40.00 or $80.00 from your pay check and buy
1 or 2 grams each payday or once a month it goes up in value, buy it
before it gets any higher as of May 19, 2008 $905 an oz and $40 a
gram. N.L.Olin
First to explain my situation, my dad owned an electronic store
that processed alot of old electronics. Over the years he amassed a
huge amount of electronics he intended to scrap. The infamous scrap
pile has been sitting outside for years and is most likely not of
much value to anyone wanting to have vintage electronics. John Fuller
May 27, 2008 To all that have got the GOLD recovery from computers BUG, I came
across this site from a friend of mine in Califonia, I have read alot
of questions & comments concerning this subject. I read response
from a gentlmen in Freeport Maine, I have to agree with him. My wife
and I are the former owners of two large tech recovery here in New
England, one in southern Maine and one in New Hampshire. The facility
in Maine was called Cyberjunk, it was only for the recovery of
electronic waste, we were generating approximately five hundred to
six hundred thousand pounds of scrap circut boards a year. We
processed our own metals, gold, silver, platinum,palladium and
others. We extracted and processed the plated componets at Cyberjunk,
the rest of the circut board was shipped to our refiner in
Philadelphia named Abington Metals, the process to extract/leaching
or recovering the metals can be VERY DANGEROUS AND VERY TOXIC, my
wife and I have a very extensive backgroud in chemistry and the
danger involed if these chemicals should mis-handled. David Forviere
June 3, 2008 Hello all, Tommy Prusciutta
June 10, 2008 Hello people, Charlie Empires
June 10, 2008 Mr. Akron John Anderson
Cut off those portions of the board that have gold. Discard the rest. Chips, which have gold inside as well as outside, must be broken open. On a small scale, one tap with a hammer should suffice. In a glass or plastic container (a 5 gallon, clean white bucket will work well), add 1 lb SubZero to ½ gallon of muriatic or hydrochloric acid. Do not use a metal container. Not all the SubZero will dissolve. This is normal. Do not discard the undissolved SubZero. The undissolved SubZero is required to be in the solution for the gold to complete its dissolution. Dissolving the gold: The acid should be at room temperature. Place your boards in a plastic mesh, or plastic wire basket or a plastic mesh bag. The acid has to pass through the basket or bag, so make sure it is either plastic mesh or plastic wire. Add the basket or bag, with your boards, to the acid solution. The metal will begin to fizz and give off an invisible or slightly brown fume. You can cover the container, but do not seal it tightly because you don't want a built up of gas pressure. You can speed up the process by heating your solution, but this creates added hazard- hot acid fumes more rapidly and is more corrosive. At room temperature, dissolving time is usually between ½ hour and 2 hours. Check the boards to make sure all the gold has been removed and dissolved into the aqua regia acid. Remove the basket from the acid, taking care not to drip acid anywhere. The aqua regia is not used up yet, so you can use the same acid to dissolve the gold off more boards. You can continue to use this acid, several times, to dissolve the metal off additional boards until it is no longer effective. The acidy boards should be rinsed (with water) in another bucket. Any brown particles are likely to be gold and should be recovered and put into a future refining bath. If you believe that some solid bits have fallen into the solution during dissolving, then (after the acid is no longer effective in dissolving any more metal), you should pour the solution into a different bucket, leaving the solids behind. Any solids left in the solution will contaminate the pure gold you are about to precipitate. Adjusting the pH & Precipitating the pure gold: When the aqua regia is no longer effective (no longer dissolves the gold on the boards), it is time to recover the pure gold from the solution. The acid will be a dark, emerald green color and should be clear, like Coca Cola, not murky or muddy looking (nothing floating inside the dark waters). If the acid is murky, it may contain particles and should be decanted into another bucket or it should be filtered. Now add a pinch of urea to the dark acid solution. If it fizzes, add additional urea until it no longer fizzes. When there is no longer any fizzing, add 1½ tablespoons of Storm Precipitant for every ounce of dissolved metal (dissolved metal content, not just dissolved gold content). Measure out and add the precipitant all at the same time. Immediately, the acid will change to a muddy brown appearance as brown particles of gold form in the acid. This brown "mud" is, despite its appearance, pure gold. If you want to speed the precipitation process, you can add the precipitant to very hot water before adding to the acid. This technique will precipitate the gold in only about 5 minutes (30-120 minutes is normal when not using this technique), but be aware that hot precipitant has a very strong, pungent odor. Once precipitation is complete, test the acid for the presence of dissolved gold with Precious Metal Detection Liquid. Testing to make sure no dissolved gold is discarded: Precious metal detection liquid will detect the presence of dissolved gold, down to 4 parts of gold per million parts of acid, detecting the presence of about 1/1,000th of 1 gram of dissolved gold. Testing for the presence of dissolved gold is absolutely necessary to insure that no dissolved gold is thrown away with the waste acid. To test, first immerse the end of the stirring rod in the acid. Remove it and touch that end to a paper towel to make a wet spot. Put a drop of gold detection liquid on the wet spot on the paper towel. If any gold is still dissolved in the acid, the wet spot will turn a purple-black or a purple-brown. If you see this color change then give the precipitant more time to work and/or add more precipitant. Rinsing the pure gold: The acid should now be a clear, amber or a green color with a brown mud at the bottom. Pour off the acid into another container. If you have a filter, you can use it. Do not pour off any of the mud. The mud is pure gold. When all the acid is poured off, add tap water to the mud. Stir and let the mud settle. Pour off the water into the container with the acid. If you have a filter, you can use it. Do not pour off any particles of brown. Repeat this rinsing 3-4 times or more. Testing to insure purity: Test with aqua ammonia to insure high purity of your gold. Place a drop of aqua ammonia test liquid on the wet gold mud. If you see any change in color to blue, even a very pale blue, rinse and test again. Give the mud a last rinse, this time with distilled water. Drying and melting: Rinse the mud into a beaker that is made to be heated or into glass coffee pot. Put the beaker or pot on a hot plate to dry the mud. Do not preheat the hot plate or thermal shock may cause the beaker to break. Melt the dried mud (now a powder). If using a torch, first wrap the powder in tissue paper and then soak that in alcohol. Also, use a Burno crucible. This will keep your gold from being blown away by the gas pressure from the torch. The gold will again take on the appearance of metal. If you've followed the instructions carefully, the gold will be 99.95% pure with virtually no losses. Mark Prinzing
June , 2008 Hi, Mark. I appreciate your highly detailed response and I'm sure many of the readers do as well. But nobody gets a pass :-) The statement that you'll get ten times as much by refining the gold yourself as from a refinery sounds exagerated. Yes, you could latch up with a questionable refinery, but many times a careful assay is done that says exactly how much gold is in the product and you can clearly see what they are offering to pay per ounce, and it's a lot more than ten percent. You tell readers to cut the tabs off circuit boards, break open the chips with a hammer in search of gold, and 'discard' the rest. This affirms the claim of so many environmental organizations that amateur recycling is a wrecking ball that scatters toxic waste everywhere. Finally, these instructions sound applicable only to your own electronics that you may happen to have on hand; because if you buy e-waste, refine it, and sell the metal you are engaging in a regulated business which requires a host of permits and close monitoring by the regulatory authorities. Thanks again for the great detail! Regards,
Can somebody tell me if the older computer monitors more gold and other metals than the CPU?? I have been ripping apart computer monitors, (understand the lead aspect...doing it safe), and been noticing these circuit boards are huge with little black platinum chips..........I guess anything on the difference of monitors and CPU would be great. Elroy Kauffman
August 25, 2008 I strip all my GOLD by hand. I use an exacto razor blade and a mini vacuum sander. It works. Mick Ireland
August 21, 2008 Well after reading all of that mmmm! I`ve got abought a Kg of fingers that i wanted to get the gold out of, but to get hold of all the chemicals is a mission. So can i sell it anyway and what about the actual boards with all the resistors do people buy that to? or is there any money to be made out of this stuff? And to all those out there DANGER. FROM READING THIS PAGE IT SHOULD BE CLEAR... jason davis
September 20, 2008 dear ted mooney, scott chaisson
September 21, 2008 Hi, Scott. No, not everyone came to this site already knowing that recovery of metals from e-waste can be dangerous and environmentally problematic. Some came here open-minded, having perhaps a loosely formed idea that it might be an interesting hobby or good business, and wanting to hear both sides before deciding whether to go further. They've heard my side and you can use my site to tell them your side as long as you cease the slurs, flaming, and ad hominem attacks. Regards,
September 21, 2008 I will say this that I worked for years for a company that dealt in used computer and data equip, I would make a weekly trip to Con ED in NYC to pick up their old equip then haul it to Long Island to be dumped in a container for China to be reclaimed. Due to the hazardous nature of this stuff the only place was china to ship to. I have hauled tons of circuit boards to FL for gold extraction then hauled the remains to a shipper for transport to China. This gold salvage is dangerous why not do copper, aluminum etc. James Ganley
hey gold miners guess what if you just burn all the parts you have
down to ash then wala JERRY Buckotz
I have dissolved some scrap/ raw material in aqua regia; now
please guide me on how to get back gold and silver from aqua regia.
plz give me formula. Ghulam MURTAZA
November 10, 2008 I recently learned of a fella in Colorado who has discovered a safe way of gold recovery and they have been working on refining the process since April 2008. Search "Amalgamite". Very interesting. I have yet to try it. Came by here in search of what electronic parts might be worthy of salvage. Thank you. Charlie Little
November 18, 2008 Dear Mr Panjala Mukesh, Prakash Sankaranarayanan
December 3, 2008 I would like to ask Mr. Mick Ireland what are the parts of the PCB to scrape in order to get gold? J. Victor 1 2 3
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