noos said:
I am curious at what point does it become profitable to get gold out of electronic waste? Is it true that no small time guy can really make money out of it because the cost of acids and other chemicals are high in the low quantity range and only when you can buy hn03 and hcl at dollar per gallon and process tons per day can you actually make money. what advice would you give a noob?
Study, study, and then study some more. There are many very knowledgeable people here who have made a great many posts helping others, that leaves a great many questions already answered. But if you have a question you can't seem to find an answer to they are willing to get you pointed in the right direction.
As for profitable, it all depends on how much you want to make. For several years my best profit margins were in small lots in which I often only recovered a gram or two. The reason was because my only overhead was in the chemicals. I had zero dollars invested in materials to refine. I used things like poorman's AR which cut the cost of small bottles of nitric acid to zero. I used coffee pots and make shift glassware, much of which I outgrew when I started doing bigger batch's. Then there were all those odd pieces of glass that break way to easy. I was happy with where I was at the time. The down fall came when I processed a large batch that I had gotten for almost nothing and found myself trying to melt a 27 gram button of gold. I had to borrow a torch to do it, and therefore I went out and bought myself a new one. I have had, and still have, health problems that has been directly related to the size of my refining growth. As My health gets better, I have found my refining growing into a larger scale, with better equipment as well the use of better chemicals.
One aspect that many new people tend to over look is that profit can be in the knowledge. I started refining just to know how it was done. I had no thoughts of profit or even making any money. For years I was just as happy recovering half a gram as I was 10 grams. I find many things become profitable mentally, and in money when I can enjoy what I am doing. If money was the only reason I had for doing this, I would have been looking for something a bit easier long ago. This is like a school, and like any good education it costs. What is the education worth?