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bqguy

New member
Joined
Apr 5, 2022
Messages
2
Location
Germany
Hi,
i habe a question, a bit similar to beryllium in IC chips, but a bit broader.
When disposing of defunct hard drives, a common tip online is to just use sandpaper on the platters and then recycle them. For defunct smartphones I read that you can just open it, drill through the chips and then recycle it. But I am a bit worried: I habe read quite a bit about beryllium now, and that it used in most smartphones and many hard drives. Since you know a lot about the chemical composition of stuff: Is it common to find beryllium in smartphone, HDD and SSD chips in significant amounts? Is beryllium found ind HDD platter substrates or the coatings? Would this advice mentioned above be safe for just a few phones/HDDs as opposed to processing large amounts of those?

Thanks!

PS: This is not really gold refining, but I hope it's OK. You guys know a lot about these topics, so asking here seemed natural.
 
Last edited:
Martijn said:
Reading a bit about this element, I'm considering not processing relay contacts with chemicals and avoid the beryllium all together whenever I can. Scary stuff when in it's in oxidized state.
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berylliumhttps://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/4/berylliumBut, no idea if it's in cell phones or HDD's.
Click to expand...
Same for me. I am just not comfortable with possible beryllium copper spring contact carrier. As I process awful lot of old USSR era stuff dating back to the 60´s etc. Folks living here in 60´s just fulfilled every appliance with toxic junk :D Mercury, cadmium, beryllium, selenium etc... Certainly not fun.

Last batch, I removed 90% of the bronze or CuBe spring "sheets" manually from the contacts, but next time... I just don´t buy them. Also, not very high profit from buying relays here.

bqguy said:
Hi,
i habe a question, a bit similar to beryllium in IC chips, but a bit broader.
When disposing of defunct hard drives, a common tip online is to just use sandpaper on the platters and then recycle them. For defunct smartphones I read that you can just open it, drill through the chips and then recycle it. But I am a bit worried: I habe read quite a bit about beryllium now, and that it used in most smartphones and many hard drives. Since you know a lot about the chemical composition of stuff: Is it common to find beryllium in smartphone, HDD and SSD chips in significant amounts? Is beryllium found ind HDD platter substrates or the coatings? Would this advice mentioned above be safe for just a few phones/HDDs as opposed to processing large amounts of those?

Thanks!

PS: This is not really gold refining, but I hope it's OK. You guys know a lot about these topics, so asking here seemed natural.
Click to expand...

To the beryllium issue, I cannot say exactly because it probably depends on location. In EU, ROHS directive don´t restrict the use of beryllium in alloys as metal, or BeO in ceramics. So, it is possible that it could be present.
BUT. Beryllium can only be toxic if you ingest the salts, inhale the ceramic dust or let it contact your skin. From few holes through the chips in the smartphone, or HDD platter (which is aluminium by the way) there is practically zero possibility that you can poison yourself in any way.
Beryllium isn´t everywhere. Two most common uses of beryllium are as alloy with copper - very durable material compared to plain copper, and used as flexible sheet metal for making contact pins in switches, contacts or relays. Second use is use of beryllium oxide in special ceramics used in high-frequency operating transmitters and other high-end telecom and RF stuff. This ceramic is white in colour most of the times, so it can be distinguished quite easily.

We have guys here, who incinerate dozens of pounds (monthly) of IC chips from PCs and smartphones etc. to the fluffy ashes, then sifting them and processing for gold recovery. If there was some ammount of beryllium present, half of them would be probably severly poisoned or dead :)

For me... If I get correctly what you assume to do with these appliances (just dissassemble them and break some key parts), there is very little to no risk at all for you and your health :)
 
Thank for the answers so far! About the disk sanding: Would cobalt be a problem or is the amount on the coatint again far too small for any real danger? I'm also asking because this would be problematic when getting a head crash in the drive, which turns the platter surface to dust.
 
bqguy said:
Thank for the answers so far! About the disk sanding: Would cobalt be a problem or is the amount on the coatint again far too small for any real danger? I'm also asking because this would be problematic when getting a head crash in the drive, which turns the platter surface to dust.
Click to expand...
Do not mess up with platter dust. Human toxicity of cobalt-containing dust and experimental studies on the mechanism of interstitial lung disease (hard metal disease) - PubMed

Henrik
 
bqguy said:
Thank for the answers so far! About the disk sanding: Would cobalt be a problem or is the amount on the coatint again far too small for any real danger? I'm also asking because this would be problematic when getting a head crash in the drive, which turns the platter surface to dust.
Click to expand...
I wouldn´t snort it, that´s for sure :)
Nickel and cobalt are both toxic and carcinogenic. But occur naturally in small quantities in food and also our bodies. That 1 microgram of dust you could possibly breathe in will be processed in matter of few weeks by your body and you will be perfectly OK. That does not mean it is safe to just inhale metal dust. But one harddrive with one platter would certainly not kill you.
In COVID times, everybody in the developed world have some respirator in hand. Use it, if you are affraid of exposure and you take the risk to nearly negative values :)
 

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