# Diabetes strips (gold )



## cleanbucket1

Hello. Always looking for new things to discover gold in and maybe some of you that have been doing this for a while can help. 
Obviously you wouldnt want to collect these from anyone you do not know for the fear of self contamination of diseases, BUT, if anyone has them, the plastic pieces you have to replace every so often have 2- 4 gold fingers on them depending on the tester. HEY, GOLD IS GOLD RITE....
Also, the strips themselves seem to have gold routes such as a computer board does with copper. Not all types but the ones my Gramms uses does. These have a thin clear layer of plastic over them that has to come off ( I soak them in soap and hot water. Not sure if that on the strips is recoverable gold, but when I find out ill let you know, Or if anyone else has an explanation, PLEASE, im all ears. I have not yet tried to process.


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## samuel-a

Yes, the strips have plated gold on traces of some conductive mylar as well as contact points.
easly recognizable.

The silvery looking one are Pd.


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## cleanbucket1

Very nice. Thank you samuel. You wouldnt happen to know any kind of yield by weight ratio on this material would you? On the gold that is..


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## samuel-a

Never had enough of it to come up with a number...

Also, there are so many manufacturers... even if i had the numbers, they would have been worthless.


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## cleanbucket1

LOL. Thats so very true. My grams saves hers for me, so I get the same ones each time. In the future when I get them all together and run a batch ill share the info. Probably wait til I get atleast 1 pound.
Thanks for your time.


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## gold4mike

I'm glad I bumped into this thread. I recently bought about 50 Blood Glucose test units at an auction that include a base unit, a hand held smaller unit and many bottles of the unused test strips. There's no visible gold on the test strips but the units each contain 4 circuit boards and the connectors are fully plated.

I'll try to separate the layers on the test strips and see what I can find.

Thanks!


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## etack

hey Mike in Dayton on craigslist a person will buy them from you.

http://dayton.craigslist.org/hab/2780336240.html


Eric


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## Jason1

cleanbucket1 said:


> Also, the strips themselves seem to have gold routes...Not all types but the ones my Gramms uses does



Right, from what I gather, not all of them use Gold.My dad was using OneTouch Ultra which doesn't "appear" to have any sort of Gold plating on the strips (but may have some other sort of metal worth saving, I don't know). Now, he uses Accu-Chek strips, which clearly have Gold/Gold plated contacts. Just one more reason to stay after him about his blood sugar lol. 







cleanbucket1 said:


> ...Not sure if that on the strips is recoverable gold...



I processed some of the latter strips along with some other gold plated items so I couldn't say whether they're "recoverable," but I do know the gold comes off in AP. Being so thin, they have a nasty habit of getting stuck together as well.


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## samuel-a

Jason1 said:


> Being so thin, they have a nasty habit of getting stuck together as well.



I totally forgot about it.
A 30 minutes soak in plain hot water will relive it from all of the gooey paste. The water will turn yellow IIRC.
Then, direct AR/HCl+Cl.


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## Jason1

samuel-a said:


> I totally forgot about it.
> A 30 minutes soak in plain hot water will relive it from all of the gooey paste.


I will remember to do that in the future. Thanks



samuel-a said:


> The water will turn yellow IIRC.


 
What's IIRC? (I'm new to this)




samuel-a said:


> Then, direct AR/HCl+Cl.



AR, Is that right? or did you mean AP? (Again, I'm a newbie, so sorry about all the questions)

Jason


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## Geo

AR = Aqua Regia

AP = acid(hcl) + peroxide(will not dissolve gold unless excess amounts of peroxide is used and then only small amounts will dissolve).

hcl/cl = hcl acid (muriatic acid) + chlorine (household bleach,sodium hypochlorite)

if you are familiar with aqua regia then use that, if you are familiar with hcl/cl then this will work equally as well. if you don't know one or the other of these two processes then you should study the reactions and practice using them as both are very good tools to have your inventory.

oh yea,IIRC is an abbreviation for "if i remember correctly" which is not to be confused with texting lingo.


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## Jason1

Oh, ok. He was saying AR _or_ HCl+Cl. I got it. Thanks


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## jack_burton

Well as a side note, it would explain why they are so expensive... I'm a type II diabetic- my strips are around $100 a month, depending how often I check. Guess I'll start a new stockpile to get my money back! :shock:


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## jimmydolittle

My wife at one time had a meter that had the gold fingered test strips, I can't remember what it was called. As I recall, the strips had an indent where the finger was placed to take the sample. She has had several over the years.


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## bigredlee

I am reading through this and anything that comes in contact with blood is a real safety concern. I work in the sterilization industry and I would never touch these with my bare hands pre-sanitization. The industry standard is 180F for 180s minimum in a wet environment(boil them for five minutes for good measure.) This will kill any living pathogen, although it will not denature the proteins in the spores, so it will never be sterile in boiling water. The A/P should do the trick to chemically sterilize though, wear your latex gloves!!


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## solar_plasma

bigredlee said:


> I am reading through this and anything that comes in contact with blood is a real safety concern. I work in the sterilization industry and I would never touch these with my bare hands pre-sanitization. The industry standard is 180F for 180s minimum in a wet environment(boil them for five minutes for good measure.) This will kill any living pathogen, although it will not denature the proteins in the spores, so it will never be sterile in boiling water. The A/P should do the trick to chemically sterilize though, wear your latex gloves!!



If you get those from unknown sources/people, incineration would be the most safe and clean pretreatment. Since I get my material only from family members, I am fine with standard lab hygiene and straight AR.


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## alexsalter3d

AHAHAHAHa -i'm type 1. Looks like i've just found a use for the like, 9 Testes I do a day then, lmao


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## solar_plasma

There is another thread about this you should read. The incredible yield two members posted in the beginning has never been confirmed though. I think they have not been active for a long time anymore. Expect about 1g from about 2400 pieces, if they are golden.

http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=16336


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## Shaul

The Accu Chek test strips (the ones with two silver-colored metallic strips) contain Palladium.

Shaul


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## jeneje

Here is a great source for Accu Chek Test Strips-Fire Assay Data.
http://refinementofpreciousmetals.com/viewtopic.php?f=140&t=901
Ken


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## artart47

Hi friends!
I have a number of people saving them for me and while working on the old nursing home my friend bought in Peshtigo, wisconsin I discovered "the dirty room" It is filled with huge cardboard boxes containing containers of bio waste. Seringes and more test strips than racine has "obama phones"
I'll be bringing it back with me along with any medical devices that they're not going to use. These strips are about a quarter inch x about an inch and a quarter. Is that the size of them. I've seen pics on the posts but with nothing to reference the size. Always thought they were really big.
Been reading a lot about them and plan to see what comes from them.

artart47


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## FrugalRefiner

Art, please be very careful with that stuff. You'll potentially be exposed to every nasty disease that's come through that facility.

Dave


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## solar_plasma

Remember, there is only gold on those you can see gold traces and it takes 2400 pieces for one gramm gold. If they aren't collected by kind in safe boxes and if they are just mixed with and thrown to the other waste, - let it be. It is not worth the risk.


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## artart47

Hi!
Thanks for the warnings! I'll be very careful! My idea is to take each container and immerse them in a steel drum with a wood fire under it and bring it to an extended boil. Before attempting to screen out the test strips. Or just incinerate the contents of each container as I remove it from the boxes. any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks again. artart47


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## Barren Realms 007

artart47 said:


> Hi!
> Thanks for the warnings! I'll be very careful! My idea is to take each container and immerse them in a steel drum with a wood fire under it and bring it to an extended boil. Before attempting to screen out the test strips. Or just incinerate the contents of each container as I remove it from the boxes. any suggestions are welcome.
> Thanks again. artart47



Incineration is your only safe option, even then I feel you might be in some danger of contamination of what you breath. I know you are really wanting to tackle this project but I feel strongly it is one you should walk away from.


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