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hfywc

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Messages
167
hello grf members!

i have someone offering me 100lbs+ of sim cards for gold recovery.
according to the seller there are 1,300 sim cards/lb. does anyone has an idea how much gold is in a pound?

thanks for taking the time to read my post!

alan
 
thanks for the reply but i am looking for some figures to determine how much should i pay per pound. anyone?
 
Are you talkind about the cards on satellite receivers (size of cerdit card) or the sims from a cell phone :?:

I have seen a couple of posts here on the forum for the satellite size cards, just don't remember much about or where to find them.
Use the search term "satellite" on lazersteves google search engine.

A while back on feebay their was an auction for 1 lb of cell phone sims and the winning bid was around $140 US.

Sorry I don't have what you are looking for, but this is what do know.

Hope it helps.
Tom C.
 
hi
i remember seeing on a list that cell phone sim cards had 0.08 grams of gold per pound but dont take that as gosple
if i can find the site i will post a link but it was a while back and the old memorys shot
 
hfywc

Sim cards have about 0.8 - 1.1 sq. cm plated area (depands on type)
in sq. inches it's about 0.124 - 0.1705.... Sometimes there's plating of traces inside, you should check that also.

I don't know the exact plating thickness, but consider the fact that sim cards are designed to be removed and reinserted by the end user, i reckon platin thickness will be similar to fingers which is, in most cases 30 microinches. But tha't not guaranteed.

You can play with these numbers in my plating calculator to get some ideas of possible yields.

But best thing you can do, is to buy from him one or two lb and make up your own yield numbers. (and share with the forum later)
 
Hi all , how are tricks?
I hope all is well!
I remember a discussion on the forum about the gold content of sim cards and they were said to have around a milligram of gold on them.
1000 sim cards to a gram ,
1,300 sim cards per pound (?) = 1.3 grams gold per pound of sims X 100 (lbs) = 130 grams , or 4.18 troy ounce gold
(1 troy ounce gold from 31,103 simcards at 1mg gold per sim)
Numbers arn't my strong point , but I'm sure this is right , :roll:
P.S. , I asked the local phone companies about maybe getting hold of some old sims from them for recycling , and was told 'no way' as the would still contain peoples personal phone numbers and details , may I ask what your secret is please? :lol:
All the best , and kind regards ,
Chris :mrgreen:
 
hello fellow members!


i am talking about 32k nextel type sim cards that you use in cellphones.
i bid on ebay and this seller sent me an email asking if i will be interested in sim cards by the pounds.

i managed to get a hand on one pound of the similar materials and on the process of brewing them in AR. in a short while i will find out how much gold it contains when i drop it.

until then....
 
hfywc said:
hello fellow members!


i am talking about 32k nextel type sim cards that you use in cellphones.
i bid on ebay and this seller sent me an email asking if i will be interested in sim cards by the pounds.

i managed to get a hand on one pound of the similar materials and on the process of brewing them in AR. in a short while i will find out how much gold it contains when i drop it.

until then....

.... and another mystery will be somehow partially solved. 8)
 
just to give you guys a heads up, i messed up on my first try. however i repeated the process but this time i only used 260 pieces of sim cards. i suspected that using AR to process sim cards as is will be troublesome because the clear coating of the plastic case will be digested as well.

to eliminate contaminations, i peeled the foils off the sim card casings. and then digested the foils in nitric. right now i am in the process of settling the gold powder. the partial settlings at the bottom and the color of the solution will tell you that there isn't much to expect.

if there are 1,300 sim cards to a pound, 260 will represent 1/5 of the lot. i can see that the partial settling at the bottom is about a pinch worth. not a lot. if i can't melt this down to a button, i will post a photo of the gold powder at the least.

thanks for bearing with me...
 
Your doing a good job. Keep up the work. We would like to know how it comes out.

But you do realize that if you recover a lot of gold, we are all going to be bidding against you in future auctions :shock: :lol:

Tom C.
 
so that's the reason why you're giving me a pat on a back! :lol:

hmmmmmm. maybe i should delay posting the result until i bought all the sim cards out there. :twisted:
 
here's a photo of the finished product...260 sim cards is what it took.

IMG_0165.JPG

however i can't divulge the weight of the bb just yet.

i am trying to close a deal so i hope you guys can understand that.
for the meantime how about a guessing game?
anybody want's to take a stab?
 
thanks tom c.!

i made a mess on my first try. so to be on the safe side i strip the foils out of its casing and used nitric to dissolve the base metals. everything else was straight forward from then on.
 
Hello all , how are tricks?
I hope all is well!
Hfywc , it's cool to see a bead pulled from some sim cards , nice work chief!
I'll have a guess at the weight , say .5g ? :roll:
All the best for now , and kind regards ,
Chris :mrgreen:
 
It will be nice to know the yield on this type of material. I'll guess .27 grams not including the borax. :|
 
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