Copper refining

Hello all,

I am new and apologize in advance if I am overstepping any boundaries.

How much of an issue is copper by product in gold refining? I am doing my research into gold refining ( I hope to post on another part of this forum varrifying my process before I actually start), I noticed that copper is.. a "problem". Considering copper is one of the product I actually want to recover ( I have a few ideas for heat sinks and heat pipes) how benificail would it be to have a location to send " copper sludge"? If there is a need I will spend a extra little bit to ensure I have a good system implace.

If this is the wrong area to post please let me know.

Thanks all

Copper in electronics is a very big deal. According to some sources, nearly 25% of PCB's weight is copper metal. Considering the amount of gold compared to the amount of copper, it can be very hard to separate the two without some advanced knowledge. Taking the 25% on average, that's 500# of copper per short ton of printed circuit boards. That is an extremely higher amount than you would get by mining a short ton of ore. Many here focus on the precious metals and ignore the copper all together. Since most low grade boards are essentially trash for precious metal recovery, they still contain, roughly, the same amount of copper. Most PCB's that are recycled in the U.S. (A huge percent goes to the landfill) go to huge copper refineries where the precious metals are collected as a waste product of purifying the copper.

Ok, copper is a "issue" kinda. If I focus on it, I will be able to get a lot of it, but then we get to the question of if its worth the effort. more research needed. Part of this thought came from a post I read on here where one of the members had a few 55 gallon drum of copper waste that no recycling centrer/scrap yard will take. figured if he/she had waste other people would have waste, how could I benefit form it.

Thank you for the response.

Over here in Spain i can sell copper for about €4 a kilo.

Part of the 'Mess' thing is to try to recover the copper and zinc as solid metal (might be all there is to recover !)