# gold recovery from cell phones



## pakolino123 (Sep 19, 2013)

Hi Everyone! in this post i´ll share you my results on gold recovery from cell phones, i started with 1 kg. cell phone boards and after removing all the aluminum and steel i obtained .585 kg of clean boards, which were threated in hlc batch to remove solder and tin, then they were processed on nitric acid to remove base metals ag and pd, and finally to obtain the gold particles, which were refined through hcl bleach process and droped out with smb , obtaining 0.21 grams of fine gold ready to be melted, Thanks Refiners


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## FrugalRefiner (Sep 19, 2013)

pakolino123 said:


> ... clean boards, which were threated in hlc batch to remove solder and tin, then they were processed on nitric acid to remove base metals ag and pd...


Be sure to check your nitric acid for gold. If you didn't incinerate after the HCl process, some chlorides would be carried over into your nitric acid leach and create a bit of aqua regia which could have put some of your gold into solution.

Dave


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## pakolino123 (Sep 19, 2013)

FrugalRefiner said:


> pakolino123 said:
> 
> 
> > ... clean boards, which were threated in hlc batch to remove solder and tin, then they were processed on nitric acid to remove base metals ag and pd...
> ...




Thanks Dave, I really apreciate your advise, should i incinerate the whole board after the hcl batch? because i didn´t. that migth have been the reason why my recovery was so low (.21 grams, by refrences in this forum i ve heared there should be between .035 grams of gold on each board (.035*52=1.82 grams ) i still have 200 grms of cell phone ic´s from another batch which will be theathed by pyroolisis, thanks Dave


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## radical351 (Sep 19, 2013)

what i have observed is the last pic shows a coffee filter. if this is your brown dust then you filter may be to big. i would loose alot of dust thru the filter. so i found that a coffee filter will filter to 50 microns. i searched and found that wahtman 42 go to 2.5 microns. this is when i started getting better results.


hth 

ray


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## Pantherlikher (Sep 19, 2013)

radical351 said:


> what i have observed is the last pic shows a coffee filter. if this is your brown dust then you filter may be to big. i would loose alot of dust thru the filter. so i found that a coffee filter will filter to 50 microns. i searched and found that wahtman 42 go to 2.5 microns. this is when i started getting better results.
> 
> 
> hth
> ...



You are right. The comercial filters only catch larger particles. I have a very tall glass I pour anything gold related into and let sit for a few days. With an occasional gentle stir to loosen from the sides of the glass. There is alot that goes right through any filter.
I put excess AP in there as well to settle anything as well as remove copper.

I would just rinse the boards well with water for any loose solder, process and then test for gold. It shouldn't be much but worth dropping.

B.S.


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## radical351 (Sep 20, 2013)

> You are right. The comercial filters only catch larger particles. I have a very tall glass I pour anything gold related into and let sit for a few days. With an occasional gentle stir to loosen from the sides of the glass. There is alot that goes right through any filter.
> I put excess AP in there as well to settle anything as well as remove copper.
> 
> I would just rinse the boards well with water for any loose solder, process and then test for gold. It shouldn't be much but worth dropping.
> ...



you are so right, every little bit counts. 

thank you 
ray


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