No registration or passwords; no pop-up ads -- just aloha, fun, & answers.
(as an eBay Partner & Amazon Affiliate earns from qualifying purchases).
Home /
T.O.C.
Fun
FAQs
Good
Books
Ref.
Libr.
Advertise
 
Help
Wanted
Current
Q&A's
Site 🔍
Search
pub  Where the
world gathers for metal finishing
Q&As since 1989



-----

Recover gold from computer boards?




SOME SUGGESTED BOOKS ON REFINING
(affil links)


"Gold Refining" by Donald Clark (2014)
avail from eBay, AbeBooks, or Amazon

"Recovering Precious Metals" by George E. Gee (2002)
avail from eBay, AbeBooks, or Amazon

"Recovery And Refining Of Precious Metals" by C.W. Ammen (1984)
avail from eBay, AbeBooks, or Amazon

"Refining Precious Metal Wastes" by C. M. Hoke (1982)
avail from eBay, AbeBooks, or Amazon

"Gold Refining" by George Gajda (1977)
avail from eBay, AbeBooks, or Amazon

Q. Yes I have a question as to whether or not there is any gold in the computer boards that are found when computers are being scrapped? And if there is gold in these, what is the best and easiest way for someone who scraps for a "living"? Is there even such thing as an easy way to clean the gold out of the parts that are on these boards? Please, I am in need of some honest to goodness help with this. Thank you.

Amy Roop
hobbyist/scrapper - Celina, Ohio
2007


A. Amy,
Yes there is gold on most computer boards. The bad thing is that the parts or parts of the board are gold plated, usually in microinch thickness on top of nickel. It would not be profitable unless you were to collect hundreds of computers. By the time you collected all those computers the price of gas you pay today to get them would nullify any profit. Almost all landfills forbid computers to be dumped these days, so you would have trouble getting rid of them after you did retrieve any gold. Sorry, but those are the logistics.

Mark Baker
Process Engineer - Syracuse, New York
2007


A. Yes, there is gold in computers. Maybe $0.20 worth in modern PCs. Using dangerous chemicals will create lots of hazardous waste from which can be extracted a tiny bit of gold which can't be sold without an assay fee. If you already have right chemicals, equipment, wastewater treatment permits and slave labor, breakeven would be at about 30,000 CPU chips. The Commonwealth and University of Massachusetts did a study (1998?) on recycling of combined electronic waste streams. Presuming a $6/hour worker could dissemble the waste into 17 (or was it 21?) recyclable groups, about 18 tons/week was the minimum for breakeven (including savings from reduction in hazardous waste disposal fees). Their Chelsea Recycling Center closed in 2003.

See threads #18889 and 29505 for more information.

For recycling electronic waste, see
http://www.nrc-recycle.org/resources/electronics/managing.htm

http://www.epa.gov/osw/elec_fs.pdf

Some vendors such as Best Buy, Dell, HP, IBM and SONY have (or had) recycling programs. HP recycles 4,000,000 pounds a month and charge $13-34 per item (any brand) to cover costs. Dell offers free recycling of their products.

Ken Vlach [deceased]
- Goleta, California

contributor of the year Finishing.com honored Ken for his countless carefully researched responses. He passed away May 14, 2015.
Rest in peace, Ken. Thank you for your hard work which the finishing world, and we at finishing.com, continue to benefit from.

2007


[Ed. update: The first link above has broken -- don't go there! Thankfully, The Internet Archive preserved a copy smiley face
The second link was removed by EPA, possibly because its links were too dated. The Internet Archive preserved a copy of that also smiley face
These days information often appears on the internet, then disappears forever. If that bothers or frightens you please consider a donation to The Internet Archive.




"E-Waste Gold"

on on Amazon



(affil links)

!! I KEEP READING THESE NEGATIVE RESPONSES. BUT MY RESEARCH TELLS ME DIFFERENT. PEOPLE ARE PAYING AN AVERAGE OF 2.00 DOLLARS A POUND FOR COMPUTER SCRAP ON EBAY ALONE [adv: electronic scrap on eBay]. SO INSTEAD OF PUSHING THESE PEOPLE AWAY, WHY DON'T YOU POINT THEM IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. AT LEAST THEN YOU KNOW THAT THEY'RE TAUGHT RIGHT. IT'S OBVIOUS THEY ALREADY HAVE THE COMPUTER COMPONENTS. A LESSON NOT LEARNED HARD ISN'T A LESSON. WOULD YOU RATHER HEAR OF FAMILIES BURNED UP OR CHEMICALLY BURNED BY EXPERIMENTATION OR WITH FALSE INFORMATION?

STEVEN BLAIR
EBAY - Kingman, Arizona
2007


A. Hi Steven. We don't censor, we post whatever suggestions are offered, which range from "don't do it" to "here's how to do it". Post what you wish!

But the "they'll do it anyway" argument applies to a thousand things. The fire department doesn't teach people "the safest way" to go back into a burning building for their pets, even though we all know that lots of people die doing it. Do you accuse the fire department of "rather hearing of families burned up"? Driver training isn't offered to 13 & 14 year olds, although many try to drive at that age.

As for us offering safety instruction, the first rule in every chemical safety course is: "Never Ever EVER Work Alone!!" -- do you solemnly swear that you'll follow this most important rule without fail before you ask us to move on to rule #2? If you're going to simply blow off the most important thing we have to tell you, what is the point?

Still, if there was a way of providing necessary safety instruction via internet postings, we could try; unfortunately there is just no place to start that doesn't leave a dozen ways that people can kill themselves. If we warn people of the terrible danger of poisonous cyanide, they may explode their house by substituting picric acid or creating ammoniacal fulminates.

People in industry must receive annual hands-on training to work with a half-dozen or fewer chemicals in a specialized, routine, circumstance. In the giant one-room schoolhouse called the internet, where post-docs in chemical engineering and grade school kids are equally likely to read a posting, it just isn't realistic to think that a manageable set of warnings for safe chemical experimentation can be developed. Don't fool with chemicals you don't understand unless you've had extensive, regular, hands-on instruction, have been fitted with PPE by a professional [yes, I know, some people won't shell out for PPE, so we're supposed to tell them how to stay safe if they won't], and have had the site certified by a chemical safety expert.

Personally, I side with every environmental organization in the world in asking that people not do amateur recycling of electronics. It's not just that your competition is starving Asian children risking their health for almost nothing -- it's also that amateur recycling of e-waste is a wrecking ball which scatters toxins absolutely everywhere, while simultaneously cherry picking the small amount of value in the waste, thereby making responsible recycling of e-waste completely impossible.

As for people spending $2 a pound for waste, yes, there are certainly people who will sell their waste for $2 a pound rather than paying for disposal if they can :-)
Regards,

Ted Mooney, finishing.com
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
November 2013


"Recovery and Refining Of precious Metals"
by C.W. Ammen

on AbeBooks

or eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. I agree completely that there isn't enough gold in computer scrap to make money at refining without a very large source of scrap. I tried recovering gold out of scrap TV components and only recovered a few specks. But I couldn't believe the amount of silver in it. Nearly every bit of solder on a circuit board is apparently silver solder. The number one goal for an electronic scrapper would have to be efficiency. But if you collect all the metals, you can make money. The copper, silver, even the steel have a value that you can cash in on. If you wish to try it then I highly recommend the book "Recovery and Refining of Precious Metals" by C.W. Ammen. ⇨
It gives a lot of details about processes used from recovery ore, jewelry scrap, and electronic scrap. It tells about the acid process and the electrolytic process.

It even gives directions on how to build a chlorine drum to recover gold from electronics and ore.

Lane Crow
- Jackson, Mississippi
October 23, 2008




thumbs down sign In the response to retrieving precious metals from computers.
My cousin was doing just that, Of course you have to be careful ordering the chemicals used for doing that especially if you live in the USA. It sends a red flag to the F.B.I. and you'll end up being arrested and have the police lie and fabricate stories about you. Your name will be dragged through the mud. Of course you can thank the anti-terrorist crap for that -- giving too much power to the police and taking individual freedoms away from the people. It is like Nazi-Germany or Communistic-Russia. The police go into your home without a warrant and destroy it (leaving empty pizza boxes, crust and pop cans and rubber gloves all over the floor) ... and remember, the insurance won't cover the damage because it's done by the police. Be warned!

vikki burkholder
- Chapleau, Ontario, Canada
March 31, 2009


Hi, Vikki. Sorry for your troubles. You are certainly correct that things can go sour: topic 4120 here addresses "Jailed for blackening metals with cyanide". And read the news: more than one person has been indicted for murder when their spouse died of natural causes because there was cyanide in the house.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, finishing.com
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
March 31, 2009




sidebar

thumbs up signForget about penny pinching Gold out of a Computer. Back in 2002 I was introduced to Metal Detecting and when I found my first old Coin which was a 1847 Large Cent (U.S Coin), I was hooked. In a 2-hour hunt I found a rare Coin worth $400. It's a great hobby and not just a hobby of a bunch of old guys on the beach picking up loose change. Some of these guys actually find rings worth thousands of dollars. They just don't advertise it, would you? There's others that hunt in the woods around old Cellar Holes and have found George Washington Buttons worth thousands as well, not to mention coins and other Relics.
That's where the money is, especially with Gold and Silver at all time highs.

Sal Veto
- Enfield, Connecticut
April 16, 2013

Ed. update 2017: And metal detecting also inspired a great TV comedy series, "The Detectorists" (Amazon/Acorn) :-)



Soaking components in bleach to extract the gold

Q. I have been told that soaking components in bleach will extract the gold. Thoughts anyone, everybody?

Wanda Nelson
- Mesa, Arizona. USA
December 5, 2014


A. Hi Wanda. Rather than believing them that it's true, or believing me that it's not, why not just take an integrated circuit or a corner of a circuit board or a loose connector, or all three, and drop them into a teacup full of bleach [adv: bleach/sodium hypochlorite in bulk on eBay or Amazon] and tell us what if anything happens :-)

Luck & Regards,

Ted Mooney, finishing.com
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey




(No "dead threads" here! If this page isn't currently on the Hotline your Q, A, or Comment will restore it)

Q, A, or Comment on THIS thread -or- Start a NEW Thread

Disclaimer: It's not possible to fully diagnose a finishing problem or the hazards of an operation via these pages. All information presented is for general reference and does not represent a professional opinion nor the policy of an author's employer. The internet is largely anonymous & unvetted; some names may be fictitious and some recommendations might be harmful.

If you are seeking a product or service related to metal finishing, please check these Directories:

 
Jobshops
Capital
Equipment
Chemicals &
Consumables
Consult'g, Train'g
& Software


About/Contact  -  Privacy Policy  -  ©1995-2024 finishing.com, Pine Beach, New Jersey, USA  -  about "affil links"