Author Topic: gold extraction from electronics.  (Read 5441 times)

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Offline aqarwaenTopic starter

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gold extraction from electronics.
« on: January 03, 2017, 08:04:09 pm »
 why you dont make video,how to extract gold from old electronics.i mean you get lots electronics,what you could scrap for gold.
 

Offline mrpackethead

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Re: gold extraction from electronics.
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2017, 08:07:17 pm »
This may have been practical some time ago, but not so much now, the gold content in electronics is minimal, and the cost of extracting it far exceeds the return.
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Offline IanB

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Re: gold extraction from electronics.
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2017, 08:36:39 pm »
See Cody'sLab for some videos actually demonstrating the process.
 

Offline Inflex

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Re: gold extraction from electronics.
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2017, 08:42:45 pm »
Cody's Lab did it for interest -
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Offline retrolefty

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Re: gold extraction from electronics.
« Reply #4 on: January 03, 2017, 08:43:05 pm »
I haven't seen such a video either. But I have seen a Youtube video on gold value of older (80s to ?) ICs, there does seem to be some kind of market if the gold content is justified.

 

Online wraper

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Re: gold extraction from electronics.
« Reply #5 on: January 03, 2017, 08:46:12 pm »
There is no point doing it. You're lucky if recovered gold covers the cost of chemicals. Then you need to work with those dangerous chemicals, a lot of time wasted for nothing. In the end you end up with a little bit of gold and a lot of dangerous chemicals you need to dispose. Those who buy electronic scrap for gold recovery on ebay are idiots. In the end, unless you do it at industrial scale, there is no point. All you do is waste your time, put your health in danger and pollute environment.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2017, 08:48:59 pm by wraper »
 

Online mikeselectricstuff

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Re: gold extraction from electronics.
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2017, 09:22:06 pm »
If you have enough scrap gold parts,take them to somewhere that is already set up to do it.
It appears that there are chips, presumably exotic military stuff,  that are 0.89% gold by weight :
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/fs-uk-synchros-resolvers-115v-26v-size-11/msg1104513/#msg1104513

Run-of-the mill recent stuff isn't going to have enough value to be economically recoverable
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Online Kleinstein

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Re: gold extraction from electronics.
« Reply #7 on: January 03, 2017, 09:27:29 pm »
There is a working industrial recycling for copper, gold and other precious metals from old electronics. So there is really no way to compete with this at home - especially without massive pollution.
Just find a place where you a reasonable price for the scraps. With modern electronics there may be more value in the copper than gold.
 

Offline Brumby

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Re: gold extraction from electronics.
« Reply #8 on: January 04, 2017, 01:07:28 am »
It didn't take much looking to see that gold recovery from these sources was just not worth the effort.  The chemicals used are enough to put you off - and then there's the issue of disposing of them.

I would suggest you'd be better off targeting copper wire.  Strip off any insulation and dump the copper in a tub.  Clean copper scrap will get you a decent price - without the nasty chemicals.  Someone on this forum was doing just that and posted about it in the last few months.
 

Offline AlfBaz

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Re: gold extraction from electronics.
« Reply #9 on: January 04, 2017, 01:28:11 am »
Funny this thread came up. Just watched this yesterday. Seem like a lot of work, materials, resources and knowledge for very little yield



 

Offline mrpackethead

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Re: gold extraction from electronics.
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2017, 03:56:27 am »
When i worked for Unisys as they still did mainframes,  the mainframe engineers would "melt" down old stuff with terrible chemicals and process's. there was a lot more Gold in the machiens back then.     They got enough year to fund a very good christmas party.
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Online Ian.M

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Re: gold extraction from electronics.
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2017, 05:20:08 am »
We put some numbers on it last spring - its just not worth it for modern boards & connectors, and the old stuff is probably worth more as rare parts!
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/scrap-gold-recovery/
 

Offline james_s

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Re: gold extraction from electronics.
« Reply #12 on: February 18, 2017, 09:15:33 pm »
Yeah a lot of old ICs are quite valuable if they are in working condition. Some are collectible even non-working if they are rare and/or historically significant. I shudder to think how much cool old stuff has been melted down for raw materials.
 


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