Gold from Electronics

[improvmechanic]

Howdy y'all! I've been away from the forum for quite a while but I've been reading in. Unfortunately my season in the Pacific Northwest is winding down, without me being able to hit the creek nearly as much as I'd like.

That being said,(and I'm sorry if this has been asked before, didn't show up with my searches) has anyone heard of reclaiming gold from electronics? With the research I've done so far I know for a fact that certain processors are loaded with the yellow stuff and I have no doubt I can flip those easily enough without actually working them. Most of the methods I've found for extracting the gold require mercury or acids. Does anyone know if grinding and sluicing, or heating the gold out is viable? I'd like to finance a new sluice, as we all would, but cant afford it out of my current job. So, at the moment, this is a curiosity. If it can be done safely and profitably on a small scale (without the use of the chemicals/heavy metals) it may become another part of my hobby. Who doesn't love a shiny yellow ingot? Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

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[fowledup]

Lol, about 25 years ago a buddy and myself got a strike it rich idea. We bought a bin box full of gold plated aircraft electronics cannon plugs at an auction. Don't remember what we paid, but for us it was a fair amount. Our next step was to buy a bunch of limit switches and t-stats for the mercury- justifiable expense as we were about to get rich -lol. Talk about a couple of idiots we didn't have a clue what we were doing, this was before the internet and you tube. We never did figure it out ended up paying to get rid of the box at the dump.

 

[improvmechanic]

And I refuse to confirm or deny having done similar things myself fowled. However, as my name suggests, I'm a bit of a mechanic. I have made money selling catalytic converters for scrap after doin exhaust system jobs. When money was real tight in college I even squeaked a small profit by flipping a few. So, I know i can do that without refining. If someone knows about the refining aspect... Well that's icing on my cake. Prospecting at garage sales haha

Edit Edition:
Also, I have had a thought. The gold plated connector pins that you can get in large lots very cheap. Does anyone have thoughts on grinding them up and using them to practice panning or test equipment? I know I'm reaching a bit there, but if there's gold in or on the pins it should increase their density and act like placer without the expese for testing/garage panning. If anyone has tried this (or sees a flaw in my plan) let me know? Especially if you see a flaw, save me the $10 and shipping haha.

 

[DesertNuggets]

No, you can't grind and sluice them. The gold isn't heavy enough. It's a very fine layer on the parts.

You do grind them though. Then soak in acid, drop and fire.

You might like goldrefiningforum.com

 

[goldenIrishman]

I think you'd find more gold in a bottle of Gold Schlauger schnapps.

 

[fowledup]

Because of golds softness I believe they coat the plating with something as well maybe a clearcoat hardener of somekind, I dont know, not certain of this I just remember we couldn't scrape it off very easy either.

 

[improvmechanic]

Could be an alloy, in which case heat by itself wouldn't be effective...
Thanks for the tip on the refining forum Desert Nuggets, I'll check it out.
And Irish, that was spoken like a true irishman haha. Unfortunately, I'm a rookie there; my experience with schnapps involves losing things more often than finding them

 

[winners58]

reverse electroplating. fast- use sulfuric acid or muriatic acid, slow- salt or even vinegar
once its off the material and the liquid is black and all the gold is off the items
change to a carbon electrode to plate the gold to. then scrape the gold off the carbon rod.
I'm NOT an expert... do a search for complete instructions and safety precautions.


.

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

Don't tell anyone, I don't want my secret to get out...

 

[mr_rich]

I new a guy doing this back when people were scraping the first generation apples and such. Back then they would gold plate fairly heavy but it didn't take long for them to thin the gold plating out so its barely worth it.

 

[DesertNuggets]

Amazing how much gold is in some early processors.

Nice list: http://www.ozcopper.com/computer-cpu-gold-yields/

 

[Mad Machinist]

look up acid peroxide on youtube.

 

[Jimmydolittle]

10 years, or so ago, I became interested in refining gold from electronics. The university where I worked was throwing circuit boards in the dumpsters, so I retrieved several hundred pounds of the stuff, bought all the info on refining I could get my hands on. I did manage to recover about 10 grams of high purity gold from it. Not thinking ahead, the major problem I faced was, where do you get rid of the spent acid, let alone all the non- gold plated electronics. Let’s just say it was not profitable for me to do. That is why I’m into prospecting today.

 

[improvmechanic]

Jimmy, that's what I was thinkin. Well, I know I can sell any processors I find to someone who's collecting large amounts of the stuff to make it worth it.

Edit: Winner, also interesting. But I think that sounds like a little more trouble than finding an open stream in Washington state in the winter. Those of us who live up here know what I mean haha

 

[Jimmydolittle]

Ebay has always been a good outlet for scrap gold of any kind, electronic scrap seems to fetch a premium on there. Good luck.

 

[improvmechanic]

Yes it does, however I caution against buying the scrap gold on there. The gold refining forum mentioned earlier in this thread has some great education on that. Research doesn't always pay, but when it does it saves feeling like a chump.

 

[Hoser John]

OLD scrap had decent gold,not so with new electronics. The process is electrowinning and required much work,expense,chemicals and no longer a viable solution. Economic viability is always my predication factor as have all the parts still,including the rectifier but why flush mo'cash down the toilet. MINE man mine-John

 

[russau]

the phone companys prior to 1966 used 24 K. gold and it was plated on the thick side,if not gold buttons for contacts.. after 1966 they used a lot lower K. and it was plated really thin.to do scrap gold now-a-days, youll need to save up a LOT of scrap and then make a decission on what way to go from there. chemically strip it or just turn it in to a refiner and let them do it with all the headachs/permits/liabilitys.i save it anyway and ill turn it in someday!

 

[KevinInColorado]

the phone companys prior to 1966 used 24 K. gold and it was plated on the thick side,if not gold buttons for contacts.. after 1966 they used a lot lower K. and it was plated really thin.to do scrap gold now-a-days, youll need to save up a LOT of scrap and then make a decission on what way to go from there. chemically strip it or just turn it in to a refiner and let them do it with all the headachs/permits/liabilitys.i save it anyway and ill turn it in someday!

...one more thing to watch for at garage sales? Is a phone that old worth more whole or in pieces?

 

[russau]

i dont give much if anything at all,otherwise i wont make much!