# Electronic gold recovery



## Chiptech81 (Feb 7, 2012)

Hi all
I need some advice,
I have access to a constant supply of computer cpu's, memory, pcb etc etc and gold plated/filled jewellery.
Is there any easy way to recover the gold that does not involve acids?
There are 3 main companies in the uk that pay for electronic waste but the price they quote is low considering what gold is available, for example:-
Pentium Pro CPU - they pay £110 per Kg
They contain 1 gram of gold each, 11 processors to 1kg, what purity of gold would it be?
Any help would be appreciated


----------



## jack_burton (Feb 7, 2012)

As far as I have seen there is no other way to recover the PMs from eWaste other than with acids. There are ways to separate metals from plastics, but at the end of the day, chemicals are used to separate the metals.


----------



## niteliteone (Feb 7, 2012)

Chiptech81 said:


> (snip)
> Pentium Pro CPU - they pay £110 per Kg
> They contain 1 gram of gold each, 11 processors to 1kg, what purity of gold would it be?
> Any help would be appreciated



You didn't find that information here :!: 
It was probably made up by a person selling processors.

Welcome to the forum Chiptech81
By using the search function on the forum you will find that on average people are lucky to recover half that amount per processor. Refined to pure.
Also look-up "boardsort" on the forum, they have a website that lists some of the best prices in the industry for computer parts containing PM's. That will give you a good idea of the value of what you have.

Tom C.


----------



## Chiptech81 (Feb 7, 2012)

There is a site that contains the typical gold content of every processor made and its not made up by someone selling them.
I had a look at that site for prices, once converted into £ per kg, it works out that i'm getting slightly more on the motherboards, pentium pro processors works out about the same price.
So best thing would be to let a refiner deal with it or stick them on ebay as i seen them fetch slightly higher.


----------



## grim (Feb 7, 2012)

hi chiptech 
what part of the uk are you in


----------



## goldsilverpro (Feb 7, 2012)

Chiptech81 said:


> There is a site that contains the typical gold content of every processor made and its not made up by someone selling them.
> I had a look at that site for prices, once converted into £ per kg, it works out that i'm getting slightly more on the motherboards, pentium pro processors works out about the same price.
> So best thing would be to let a refiner deal with it or stick them on ebay as i seen them fetch slightly higher.



Give the link, please.


----------



## Chiptech81 (Feb 8, 2012)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/28911037/Gold-Content-List-in-CPU-Chips


----------



## niteliteone (Feb 8, 2012)

That's the most popular inacurate list out their.
This list doesn't contain the quantities for every processor made either. It only covers about 5% of the various processors available.

Goog luck.
Tom C

P.S. Their is a name on the left side of the page of that scrib document. Put it in the search bar on this site.


----------



## Chiptech81 (Feb 8, 2012)

I only used it as a reference as these processors are typically what i get hold of.

Can you tell me a better site then?

I only came on this forum to get information - seems i'm getting my head chewed off!


----------



## jack_burton (Feb 8, 2012)

There are so many variables to recovery of CPUs (and any other eWaste for that matter) it is nearly impossible to ever have a comprehensive all-in-one spreadsheet. Most of us just have learned through experience and doing the jobs ourselves, keeping track of scrap types and yields. You can find a lot of that information here on the forums. A good example are the yield contests people have been running. They are also a good example to show that there is no single best answer to "what will 1KG of ceramic CPUs yield in gold?" Just take a look, the guesses are all over the place.

Why? Not only does the type of scrap material change from recovery to recovery, so does the process each refiner uses, even if just slightly. It all affects the expected and actual outcome of gold.

I hope that helps explain a little better why you aren't getting the answer you are looking for.


----------



## patnor1011 (Feb 8, 2012)

PPro will yield approx 0.3 to 0.5g a piece. It is always safer to go by smaller number when doing any calculation. Anything more will be pleasant surprise. That is always better than base calculations on higher amounts and be disappointed when you recover less than you wanted.


----------



## nickvc (Feb 8, 2012)

patnor1011 said:


> PPro will yield approx 0.3 to 0.5g a piece. It is always safer to go by smaller number when doing any calculation. Anything more will be pleasant surprise. That is always better than base calculations on higher amounts and be disappointed when you recover less than you wanted.




Wise words Patnor and one we should all abide by.

Chiptech we aren't chewing your head off, yet, but try to understand many of the people responding to your posts have been doing the actual refining for years. There is no definitive list for virtually any e scrap product as the variables in the weight, the plating thickness,wear and different manufacturers make it damn near impossible. As the replies stated you may not recover as much gold as the other person due to technique or skill. If you want to buy and sell fine, buy below what others will pay you and you can't lose, if you want to refine start studying and reading on here but I can't guarantee you will get rich doing it but you will learn the necessary skills to refine just about anything with values in or on them.
To use your own example of the CPUs if there is 1/2 gram each the gold is worth £190 less costs and time if you only get 1/3 gram you will have £125 worth of gold less costs...now do think this is so easy. Professional refiners with all the right equipment should recover 99% + of the values the home refiner might get similar recovery with the right skills and processes but many will struggle to recover much more than 70-80% economically if time and labour are costed in and perhaps less.

Edited for clarity.


----------



## Chiptech81 (Feb 8, 2012)

nickvc said:


> patnor1011 said:
> 
> 
> > PPro will yield approx 0.3 to 0.5g a piece. It is always safer to go by smaller number when doing any calculation. Anything more will be pleasant surprise. That is always better than base calculations on higher amounts and be disappointed when you recover less than you wanted.
> ...



Thanks everyone for the replies, i have come to a decision, i will let the people in the know deal with the refining of them - safer all round. I know i won't get rich from these but i've made a tidy sum from scrap jewellery since 2008. I get these cpu's for free so however i sell them i will win either way, as always it's nice to get as much as possible.


----------



## stevem4323 (Apr 30, 2012)

Chiptech81 said:


> Hi all
> I need some advice,
> I have access to a constant supply of computer cpu's, memory, pcb etc etc and gold plated/filled jewellery.
> Is there any easy way to recover the gold that does not involve acids?
> ...


if they yeild 1 gramme each one then wouldnt it be a 1000 processors to the kilo ....not 11


----------



## Chiptech81 (May 1, 2012)

I just re-read my question and noticed it doesn't make sense, but the whole weight of 11 pentium pro cpu's is approx 1kg in weight


----------



## bman3725 (May 14, 2012)

Hello all, im a newbie here as well so please excuse me if im asking or stating something stupid....so here goes


I have a friend of mine that used to go to car dealerships and apply the gold packages to cars on their lots. He would use 2 different chemicals and a battery and viola gold package. 
My question is...isnt there another chemical available in case someone with this trade made a mistake and could simply reverse the process? all i remember was one of the chemicals cleaned the area while the other was used with his battery and probes to activate the gold. Was this some other type of gold or was it just a mixture of chemicals combined with the electricity to make the gold color? Any suggestions or ideas will be appreciated. I want to find some other way to refine this without the use of the harsh chemicals, they are dangerous and i have kids around.....curious kids at that. Can the gold plating be scraped? i know this would be very time consuming. I have read the previous posts just hoping someone has found a trick by now.


thanks 
Bman


----------



## Harold_V (May 14, 2012)

bman3725 said:


> Hello all, im a newbie here as well so please excuse me if im asking or stating something stupid....so here goes
> 
> 
> I have a friend of mine that used to go to car dealerships and apply the gold packages to cars on their lots. He would use 2 different chemicals and a battery and viola gold package.
> ...


Without knowing more, the answer I'll provide may or may not be appropriate. 

It's possible to brush plate gold. I am not personally familiar with the process, but it is gold---but most likely would not be worth the effort to recover. I fully expect it is very thin---although I might be wrong about that. 

There are better sources from which gold can be recovered. I expect you'd not find a large number of cars that have gold applied. 

Welcome to the forum. 

Harold


----------



## butcher (May 14, 2012)

bman3725,
You could just learn testing, buying and selling, that way you could acquire refined gold without using chemicals, in this area panning the rivers and streams you can find some gold, sell it and buy refined gold.

if you wish to refine these metals you will be working with dangerous chemicals, you cannot build a house without tools, there are some processes less dangerous than others but none you should have around children.


----------



## eesakiwi (May 15, 2012)

bman3725 said:


> Hello all, im a newbie here as well so please excuse me if im asking or stating something stupid....so here goes
> 
> 
> I have a friend of mine that used to go to car dealerships and apply the gold packages to cars on their lots. He would use 2 different chemicals and a battery and viola gold package.
> My question is...isnt there another chemical available in case someone with this trade made a mistake and could simply reverse the process? all i remember was one of the chemicals cleaned the area while the other was used with his battery and probes to activate the gold. Was this some other type of gold or was it just a mixture of chemicals combined with the electricity to make the gold color? Any suggestions or ideas will be appreciated. thanks Bman



I have seen that process at a car fair. They used a murky/clear gell (jelly-gel spelling?) & a 'special' electronic box to supply the current.
I think its a 'trade secret' sorta business. It cost several thousand $ to buy they whole unit & they got the gell from the firm from then on too.
They could gold plate bathroom taps etc in situ.
They were showing their product by gold plating a small coin that you gave them, in about 3 seconds.
The gell got used up pretty quickly & they couldn't-wouldn't try salvaging the loose gell from the process.

That gave me the idea that the gold coating isn't 100% gold & that its really really thin, real thin.
Just to imagine how thin, look at a plastic chip bag, its coated in a Ali layer, you can see thru it, its THAT thin.


----------



## Geo (May 15, 2012)

most gold plating is thin enough to see through.the human hair (on average) is about 40 micro-inches in thickness, gold plating can be much thinner than this. the thickest gold plating is on connections that will be plugged and unplugged many times in its useful lifetime. if you could peel the gold off in a sheet, you could read a paper through it.


----------



## goldsilverpro (May 15, 2012)

Like Harold said, it sounds like you're talking about brush plating. The gold plating solution is in a gel form probably to confine it and prevent it from running all over. 

In the old days, we put a wad of glass wool on the end of about a 6" carbon rod. It was held on with a rubber band. The positive lead from the rectifier was hooked to the other end of the carbon rod. The negative lead was hooked to the object being plated. The glass wool was dipped (and re-dipped frequently) in whatever type plating solution was desired and brushed on the clean object being plated. In industry, special brush plating solutions (usually with a high metal concentration) are often used but, in practice, many regular plating solutions will work at the right voltage - usually from 2 to 4V, depending on the solution. You need enough glass wool to prevent the rod from shorting out on the part being plated.


----------



## SStafoscolton2 (Sep 6, 2017)

I am trying to separated gold from others metals. I have the gold dust from my process. But when I went to smelt it. The gold was magnetic. Any one know why?


----------



## butcher (Sep 6, 2017)

Gold is non magnetic, other metals like iron are magnetic.
So you either do not have gold dust from your process or your gold is mixed with other the metals which you were trying to separate.

I do not know what metals you were trying to separate, or any details of what your process consists of or the details in it, or what you could be working with like pyrite ore or electronic scrap or a golden yellow banana.

All I know is gold will not stick to a magnet.


----------



## nickvc (Sep 6, 2017)

As Butcher has said we need a lot more information to be able to even guess what has occurred.
What you were processing.
How you processed it and with what and what chemicals were used.
Basically an A-Z of what you had and what exactly you have done, answers will follow very quickly if we know that..


----------



## VictorB1 (Aug 19, 2021)

Chiptech81 said:


> Hi all
> I need some advice,
> I have access to a constant supply of computer cpu's, memory, pcb etc etc and gold plated/filled jewellery.
> Is there any easy way to recover the gold that does not involve acids?
> ...


I will teach you an extremely easy method 8f you will help me with your supplier. Furthermore, expect to recover .5 gram from large pentiums


----------



## FrugalRefiner (Aug 19, 2021)

Chiptech hasn't been here since 2017. If you click on a member's name, you can see when they last visited.

Dave


----------

