Gold From E-waste

[mn90403]

Maybe someone can find a use for this in normal gold recovery.

 

How to Extract Gold from E-Waste Using Old Milk - GreekReporter.com

[Valens Legacy]

With all the circuit boards that I have, which are bad, I will be looking into this because I know there is a lot of gold contacts and plating used on most of the boards I have for my equipment.

Thanks for sharing this story.

[chrisski]

3 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

With all the circuit boards that I have, which are bad, I will be looking into this because I know there is a lot of gold contacts and plating used on most of the boards I have for my equipment.

I’d like to hear what you recover, but am a bit skeptical.  

There were a few vendors at a GPAA show over 10 years ago that were selling to remove gold chemically from circuit boards. Seemed like a lot of work.  He said he removed pieces from the board and tossed them in the solution while watching TV.  He also showed me a hunk of grey metal a couple inches big he was sending off to be refined, but would not guess at how much it would be worth.

I’ve also plated nickel, zinc and copper, and the amount that goes on is insignificant.  Also, when I can pay a few extra cents and get a gold plated contact for projects, I don’t expect much gold recovered.

Apologize for the off topic rant, but removing precious metals is a road I almost went down.

[Swegin]

6 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

With all the circuit boards that I have, which are bad, I will be looking into this because I know there is a lot of gold contacts and plating used on most of the boards I have for my equipment.

There is a lot less gold than you think.  

 

[dig4gold]

That half gram bit of gold is worth about NZ$50. That is less than what I get paid for an hours work. I can see a lot more than an hours work for creating that bit of gold.

D4G

[Valens Legacy]

14 hours ago, dig4gold said:

hat half gram bit of gold is worth about NZ$50. That is less than what I get paid for an hours work. I can see a lot more than an hours work for creating that bit of gold.

 

17 hours ago, chrisski said:

I’d like to hear what you recover, but am a bit skeptical.  

 

I have a lot of contacts that are 18k solid and a lot of traces or runs that are gold plated. That is the reason I am interested in reclaiming as much gold as I can from the circuit boards.

Some of the contacts are between 1/2 to 1 gram each and will add up very quickly.

Specialty boards that use gold for connections are not cheap and I am going to get my monies worth since they are bad.

Thanks for the heads up on what to expect from reclaiming gold from boards.

[schoolofhardNox]

7 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

 

 

I have a lot of contacts that are 18k solid and a lot of traces or runs that are gold plated. That is the reason I am interested in reclaiming as much gold as I can from the circuit boards.

Some of the contacts are between 1/2 to 1 gram each and will add up very quickly.

Specialty boards that use gold for connections are not cheap and I am going to get my monies worth since they are bad.

Thanks for the heads up on what to expect from reclaiming gold from boards.

I belong to a gold refining forum, as I have a small recycling business. There are a lot of ways to get gold from components on a circuit board or from plated pins. There are ways to bleach or hydrogen peroxide to put metals into solution, but aqua regia is the fastest and most effective method. There are other more dangerous methods out there. I would strongly recommend  that if anyone is intending to do any kind of refining to join a refining forum on line. Not only are there life threatening chemical combinations that can be fatal, but there are components that contain beryllium, that are very toxic. Also other conditions that may happen inadvertently when you are refining for one metal but there may be others present that may cause you harm.  I don't want to stray off topic too much, but DM me if anyone needs more information and on what forum to join.

As for the article, there has been more interests lately into using amino acids and other more natural ways to leach metals from components, as well as crushed rock. The article still needed nitric and hydrochloric acids to put the metals into solution. Interesting read, but not to the level where it would be practical to use....yet.

Most people over estimate the amount of gold in electronics. You need a lot more separated components that one might think. I won't refine mine until I have a lot of gold bearing items. The cost of chemicals makes it difficult to refine on a small scale. But you can do it just for fun or to have a tiny bead of gold to show.  Here is how I store mine until I can break down the boards for refining.

[dig4gold]

Thank you schoolofhardNox. There in lies the truth. Life threatening chemicals & not as much gold on electronics as people may think.

D4G

[mn90403]

I used to buy used and surplus computer equipment.  Most of it was put back into service but a good portion of it was dead.  I would separate the metals and boards and get a different price for each by the pound/truck load.

The recyclers need quantity.  They would break off all the fingers by hand and treat them as School said.  The old main frames and the CPUs had much more gold.  Many people put boards up from the 80s and 90s and got pretty big offers on eBay from people that would do recovery.

I got out of the business in about 2006.  I couldn't do enough volume and I didn't have a yard.  When I stopped doing it I could get lots of stuff for free and the desks the computers were sitting on were worth more than the computers.

[Valens Legacy]

19 hours ago, schoolofhardNox said:

Most people over estimate the amount of gold in electronics.

The last time I removed contacts from some boards I pulled the contacts off and recovered 1.3 oz in my kiln.

The boards I have now I estimate maybe double of that, but I am going to wait for more boards so that maybe I can get the gold off the circuit boards themselves.

I might check with you in the future to see if you might be interested in helping. I only have about 350 lbs of circuit boards at this time and that is without components on them.

Thanks for the in formation,

Caleb