Need help identifying this type of scrap

[icejj]

I've seen interesting methods that don't require entirely dissolving the substrate metal. I'm working on one that is best for me. I have gold filled jewelry and other items, and e-scrap, a lot of it military.

What type of methods have you seen?

 

[jphayesjr]

Videos posted by Sreetips and others. They involve weak acids and long holding times. I'll experiment and report.

 

[Brett Novak]

good find - if they are magnetic, 99% sure it's gold plate over nickel. Easy to process with AR.

If they aren't magnetic, may be gold plate over brass, copper or aluminum. Still easy to process with AR.

 

[icejj]

To provide an update, I was told that these were military grade pins. Has anyone processed military grade pins?

 

[Brett Novak]

Yes - and again, check if they are magnetic. That will at least be an easy test if they are plated, and an idea of what base metal.

Either way, a good bath in AR will dissolve everything eventually, and then just precipitate out the gold.

 

[icejj]

good find - if they are magnetic, 99% sure it's gold plate over nickel. Easy to process with AR.

If they aren't magnetic, may be gold plate over brass, copper or aluminum. Still easy to process with AR.

Thanks! I checked and they are either magnetic or seminagnetic.

 

[icejj]

Yes - and again, check if they are magnetic. That will at least be an easy test if they are plated, and an idea of what base metal.

Either way, a good bath in AR will dissolve everything eventually, and then just precipitate out the gold.

Thanks. What was your yield for military grade pins?

 

[jphayesjr]

Researching, when I find evidence these methods work, I will share.

 

[Alondro]

& for what it is worth - the highest yield pins I have ever seen ran about 12 grams per kilo --- the came out of "old" microwave gear

Edit to add; - the plating was so thick I had to boil them in nitric in order for the acid to get under the gold & dissolve the brass away

Kurt

Kinda like the military-grade pins I have. The plating is so thick it holds it's tube-shape when all the base metal is gone. Tends to make them float cuz they get gas bubbles stuck inside. I have to squish them with a stirring rod to make them sink, and they sink FAST! Straight to the bottom.

They're very big pins, and I only have a few ounces of them. So I cut them in half and toss them into my 1000ml concentrated stock bottle each time I have new stock solution that I suspect has a relatively high amount of PMs stuck in it (usually gold from the last HCl pre-treatment of very thinly-plated electronics parts. Some gold does dissolve from such thin plating when no base metals are left.

The base metal in the big military electronics pins gets dissolved, recovering any PMs in the stock, and the thick heavy gold foils are easily recovered and washed afterward.

I do it that way to keep the solution volume LOW, since those big pins are almost certainly BERYLLIUM copper alloy cores. I want as low a volume of that as possible, as it needs to be treated as SUPER-toxic waste! If I were to put those pins in a big mixture of modern pins, then I'd have deadly beryllium ion in a GIANT volume of solution.

 

[icejj]

Just to update you all... I made a deal with who I bought the batch of pins from, so I ended up processing the batch. The yield for the pins was around 8-8.5 grams per kilogram!

 

[dominikq]

Need help identifying this type of scrap quaestion two​

strong magnesium from the hard drive reacts only in place of the blue circle
I think it's imprint from an orange line from gold-plated rods
red circle probably connecting
origin hewelt packard in germany year 1994 orange tapes gray housings
stop or layer or nordic gold ???
as well as the yellow line, the magnet reacts slightly to these two elements
layer gold stop rather not or maybe nordic,

 

[Yggdrasil]

Need help identifying this type of scrap quaestion two​

strong magnesium from the hard drive reacts only in place of the blue circle
I think it's imprint from an orange line from gold-plated rods
red circle probably connecting
origin hewelt packard in germany year 1994 orange tapes gray housings
stop or layer or nordic gold ???
as well as the yellow line, the magnet reacts slightly to these two elements
layer gold stop rather not or maybe nordic,




View attachment 61394View attachment 61395

Welcome to us.
I believe you mean Magnet not Magnesium.
And if it is Gold plated it can be any metal under the plating, but it should be the whole length not just the ends.
On can say there is strong reasons to.
So I suspect Brass is the most if not all of it.
Put a drop of HCl or Nitric on it and see if it reacts.

 

[dominikq]

another question about the type of metal, four photos yellow line, red cross photo of the whole, Is there gold in it? silver color ram and bios socket, what type of metal was it made of? it definitely contains nickel and iron, because strong magnesium attracts it single pins, branded connectors amphenol, board ibm and cisco, maybe it contains silver? or it is the so-called white gold? for the day now not have any acid,

 

[Yggdrasil]

another question about the type of metal, four photos yellow line, red cross photo of the whole, Is there gold in it? silver color ram and bios socket, what type of metal was it made of? it definitely contains nickel and iron, because strong magnesium attracts it single pins, branded connectors amphenol, board ibm and cisco, maybe it contains silver? or it is the so-called white gold? for the day now not have any acid,

View attachment 62656
View attachment 62657
View attachment 62658

These are not of any value, they are aluminum or some other base metal alloy.
If they are fully plated with Gold they may have some value.
And please check your spelling, Magnesium is a metal and Magnets are what you refer to.

 

[Alondro]

These are not of any value, they are aluminum or some other base metal alloy.
If they are fully plated with Gold they may have some value.
And please check your spelling, Magnesium is a metal and Magnets are what you refer to.

I tested some of those, as I test everything once. No trace of PMs at all. Likely tin-plated as adding nitric to the HCl dissolve created the dreaded goo!

 

[anachronism]

I tested some of those, as I test everything once. No trace of PMs at all. Likely tin-plated as adding nitric to the HCl dissolve created the dreaded goo!

It's a combi of Tin ones and Nickel ones Alondro. Old EDO RAM type stuff.

 

[dominikq]

asks another questionI use google translate
There are three photos
number 3: is there any gold still inside
number 2: concerns the first photo
number 1:
item weight blue cross 3150 g,item weight red cross 1100 g,item weight green cross 750 g approximate BGA without PCB, quantity 55 - 60 pieces,
item weight yellow cross 3000g various versions small large multiple origins
Item weight purple cross 150 g tape only
I have a steel crucible for ordinary iron, capacity 4 liters, thick wall 7 mm, and a furnace,

the most important fundamental question
:Can I put it all together in a crucible and heat it at 1400 degrees Celsius for a long time to get rid of this PCB?
these BGA chips have a PCB base but it can be manually cut off to make it thin,
see the photo - red cross, and a black overlay material similar to the photo - yellow cross,
this is a small problem for temperatures above 1250 degrees Celsius,
I am interested in the answer what will come out of it, is the PCB removable at high temperature for a long time,
these black chips turn into ash that can be collected with a spoon in the furnace, melt the blue cross together with the object,
will it be the same with the PCB,Will the PCB treated with a high temperature of at least 1250 degrees allow collecting this artificial garbage from the surface of the crucible, such as the ash from the yellow cross object,
how should I arrange it in the crucible, first the PCB at the bottom, then the black squares and the blue cross object at the top,
I forgot about the purple cross object tape, but I think it should be mixed together with the PCB,
small red crosses are the objects that I would like to push completely into the crucible, entire PCB boards,
the most important thing is whether this metal will be melted into one whole and whether it will be possible to remove the PCB remnants from the crucible surface,

I would like to create one piece from all this, there will be a lot of impurities, but the melt must remain stable as a metal with gold content,

 

[GoIdman]

asks another questionI use google translate
There are three photos
number 3: is there any gold still inside
number 2: concerns the first photo
number 1:
item weight blue cross 3150 g,item weight red cross 1100 g,item weight green cross 750 g approximate BGA without PCB, quantity 55 - 60 pieces,
item weight yellow cross 3000g various versions small large multiple origins
Item weight purple cross 150 g tape only
I have a steel crucible for ordinary iron, capacity 4 liters, thick wall 7 mm, and a furnace,

the most important fundamental question
:Can I put it all together in a crucible and heat it at 1400 degrees Celsius for a long time to get rid of this PCB?
these BGA chips have a PCB base but it can be manually cut off to make it thin,
see the photo - red cross, and a black overlay material similar to the photo - yellow cross,
this is a small problem for temperatures above 1250 degrees Celsius,
I am interested in the answer what will come out of it, is the PCB removable at high temperature for a long time,
these black chips turn into ash that can be collected with a spoon in the furnace, melt the blue cross together with the object,
will it be the same with the PCB,Will the PCB treated with a high temperature of at least 1250 degrees allow collecting this artificial garbage from the surface of the crucible, such as the ash from the yellow cross object,
how should I arrange it in the crucible, first the PCB at the bottom, then the black squares and the blue cross object at the top,
I forgot about the purple cross object tape, but I think it should be mixed together with the PCB,
small red crosses are the objects that I would like to push completely into the crucible, entire PCB boards,
the most important thing is whether this metal will be melted into one whole and whether it will be possible to remove the PCB remnants from the crucible surface,

I would like to create one piece from all this, there will be a lot of impurities, but the melt must remain stable as a metal with gold content,

View attachment 63008View attachment 63009
View attachment 63010

Hi,

Blue cross: better use a sulfuric cell since it probably has magnetic and non magnetic pins. (use search function on forum to learn about it)
Red cross: as I see in the picture, you have a lot of ENIG plated pcb, which has very low yield, if time is not a problem use AP process to free the foils. I don`t recommend burning PCB since it creates very toxic fumes and it is bad for you and your neighbours health.
White cross: Allthough you can try recovering that very small amount of gold/silver, that can possibly be, it is not worth it since your input value will be much more grater than the output value, so it is mostly trash!
Pink cross: can go with red cross

Be safe,

Pete

 

[Thirmo21]

Hi,

Blue cross: better use a sulfuric cell since it probably has magnetic and non magnetic pins. (use search function on forum to learn about it)
Red cross: as I see in the picture, you have a lot of ENIG plated pcb, which has very low yield, if time is not a problem use AP process to free the foils. I don`t recommend burning PCB since it creates very toxic fumes and it is bad for you and your neighbours health.
White cross: Allthough you can try recovering that very small amount of gold/silver, that can possibly be, it is not worth it since your input value will be much more grater than the output value, so it is mostly trash!
Pink cross: can go with red cross

Be safe,

Pete

I ll happily take that trash

 

[dominikq]

it is not ceramic, after breaking it you can see flakes of copper-colored metal surface, does it contain any gold in this copper alloy, permanently soldered, or are there any gold-plated paths around this central silicon,