Jump to content

Need Some Help With Electronic Scrap


Recommended Posts

The older the electronic scrap is, the more gold there will be in it.  More than 40 years ago, I repaired old televisions and some of the tuners had solid gold buttons as contacts.  Those that weren't gold were silver.  Some of the old Sears gas stoves had platinum igniters and of course there were platinum wires in spark plugs.  The earliest computer processors chips had solid gold wires, although very tiny.  But I would guess now that the gold plating on wires is only a few atoms thick, as manufacturers try to trim costs.  So now many use acids to dissolve away the substrate to release those thin layers of gold.

 

I would guess that unless you plan to set up a major gold recovery operation, the cost of chemicals, equipment, ventilation, etc. for small volume recovery would actually end up costing more money than the gold gecovered.  Would be kinda fun though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


It is really not that much work to recover the scrap gold if you have the source. However, first you need to study and learn what you are doing. Throwing everything in a cement mixer is a just crazy way of doing it, and no the tiny foils and stuff that coats electronic contacts is not easily captured in a gold pan. Many guys also do stuff that seems like a shortcut but just makes the gold nearly impossible to collect.

Some years ago I was given a couple pounds of old gold plated electronic contact pins and then used acid I already had on hand to dissolve away the pins, leaving the gold coating behind. Below are the gold foils I captured. While it appears that I have a big jar full of gold, the little foils don't weigh much. The total weight on this is just less than half an ounce. On the other hand, half an ounce is nothing to sneeze at!

 

If you want to learn about the topic, there is actually a gold refiners forum that covers not only recovery of scrap gold, but also refining of gold and other PMs. Join this forum, read a lot and you will learn.

 

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/

post-5-0-20114600-1448572369_thumb.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for your answers! I'll wait with ishore staff, need some more knowledge first.
Sorry for lame question: how do you detect how much gold there are in equipment or on the electronic board? When I look at the scrap, I'm really not sure which parts can be used for refining.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...