# Gold from connector pins and other electronic components



## revive (Dec 29, 2011)

Would be great if someone were to help me figure out if by pyrolising connector pins both male and female , roasting them before melting , would I lose some gold in the fine dust or fumes from the process?
Pl suggest


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## niteliteone (Dec 29, 2011)

From what I understand of the process If the container is closed to not allow outside air flow there is no place for the PM's to go.
Also it is NOT recomended to roast plastic in an open fire.

Test the connectors to see if they are acid resistant. If they pass just put them in the acid and disolve the metal from the connectors. Be sure to rinse all the gold pieces from the connectors.

I just finished doing 75 processor sockets this way and it worked perfect. No gold loss at all.

Hope this Helps
Tom C.


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## Geo (Dec 29, 2011)

if you melt connector pins before removing the base metal first, you will be creating a whole bunch of headaches for yourself. its alot easier to remove the base metal as pins than a big blob of conglomerated metals.you should do some studying and read the forum on the subject before you do anything. have you read Hokes book?its free to download from the signature line of several members of the forum. a couple that come to mind is Claudie and Palladium. download and read the book as its the holy grail of refining for the simple man.


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## revive (Dec 30, 2011)

Thank you for the response.

I am using 70% nitric acid with tap water for recovering gold from the alloy that I recover after melting PCB. 
The deposited gold(Maybe other Precious metals) is black in color and very fine.

Can someone tell me if the tap water , maybe with chlorines is posing a problem and hence the black fine residue.

Or the nitric acid has a problem?

Thx


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## butcher (Dec 30, 2011)

My opinion melting the PCB can be your problem.


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## patnor1011 (Dec 31, 2011)

revive said:


> Would be great if someone were to help me figure out if by pyrolising connector pins both male and female , roasting them before melting , would I lose some gold in the fine dust or fumes from the process?
> Pl suggest



I do it with chips but never tried connector ends - they are in soft plastic different type than what is used on chips.


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## butcher (Dec 31, 2011)

Most plastics and metal pins can be separated easily by mechanical means.
Some plastics and pins can be separated in acid peroxide.

As I understand it many plastics are made from oil byproducts (hydro carbons), and some are made from chlorides (poly chloride), incinerating these with gold, may put gold into a volatile state and up into smoke, also you would have lots of ash to deal with, I have no facts to backup my belief here, but I see no reason to burn large amounts of plastic from pins, also unless you have after burners or proper equipment it can pollute our air and your area, not to mention if department of environmental quality comes by your place, to see what all of that black stinking sooty smoke is coming from your back yard is all about.

Although Incineration has many benifits this is not one of them in my opinion.


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