# Smelting Service Scotland



## DerekT (Feb 16, 2016)

Hi Folks,

I have recently scrapped an old pre-2000 mainframe and some of the memory circuit connectors have the thickest gold I have ever seen on a board. It is so thick I have been able to pick it off with a craft knife (albeit it comes off in flecks). I now have a small container full of these gold flecks but it also contains some of the circuit board residue. I had though about smelting it myself but I have no idea what I'm doing and would prefer to hire the services of a professional. Does anyone know a reliable smelting service in Scotland?

Many thanks,
Derek


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## nickvc (Feb 16, 2016)

Derek welcome to the forum.
I'd suggest stripping the boards properly in AP, you can't remove the gold efficiently the way your trying to,whatever you have removed will be contaminated with nickel and copper at the least.
If it is a large set up you may well have missed many of the values, pins, sockets, connectors, CPUs, fingers etc!
Spend some time using the search function and find out where the values are and in what, top right of the screen, keep hold of all the scrap you have until you know what it is, not all the values are visible.
Good luck and start reading.


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## Anonymous (Feb 17, 2016)

Smelting isn't the way ahead for this Derek.

Pop a picture up please. I think I know what kind of gear you have there but it would help if I could see it.

Jon


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## patnor1011 (Feb 17, 2016)

More than 90% of what you got there will not be gold but other metals and they will need to be removed prior melting.


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## DerekT (Feb 18, 2016)

Thanks for feedback folks, this is the photo of one of the chips.


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## g_axelsson (Feb 18, 2016)

Nice board, but the gold is most definitely only plated on top of copper. You could peal off the gold plated pieces but there is no need to do that. Break or cut off the part of the board that contains the gold plate, then dissolve the copper and the gold falls off.

I could offer to refine the gold and return 100% to you if you send me the whole boards. I think there could be enough palladium in the capacitors to cover my cost. You will have your gold back in a month. I could do it faster but I'm booked on a job out of town for two weeks.
I could also be wrong in my assessment but that's a chance I'm willing to take just to see if my hunch is right. 8) 
If you want to check shipping cost I'm in Sweden, zip 90345. You could probably find someone closer that could extract and refine your gold.

How many boards do you have? Any nice CPU:s in the mainframe?

By the way, that's no memory board, it's a DC/DC power converter.

Göran


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## Barren Realms 007 (Feb 18, 2016)

g_axelsson said:


> Nice board, but the gold is most definitely only plated on top of copper. You could peal off the gold plated pieces but there is no need to do that. Break or cut off the part of the board that contains the gold plate, then dissolve the copper and the gold falls off.
> 
> I could offer to refine the gold and return 100% to you if you send me the whole boards. I think there could be enough palladium in the capacitors to cover my cost. You will have your gold back in a month. I could do it faster but I'm booked on a job out of town for two weeks.
> I could also be wrong in my assessment but that's a chance I'm willing to take just to see if my hunch is right. 8)
> ...



Umm don't you mean an AC/DC power converter?


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## Anonymous (Feb 18, 2016)

Guys the correct term for this part is a VRM or Voltage Regulator Module.

Designed to keep a perfectly stable electrical feed to the processors.

8) 8) 

Yes there is Palladium in some of the MLC and the gold edges yield approx 5g per Kg of edges.


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## g_axelsson (Feb 18, 2016)

Yes, I mean DC/DC converter. It's a step down converter from 36-75V DC to 1.3-3.5V DC. Then you don't need so thick cables to pipe all that current at low voltage that modern electronics use. It's virtually impossible to transfer that large currents without getting voltage drops that takes the voltage outside of the narrow specifications.

The dead giveaway that it is DC to DC is the lack of bulky capacitors on the input side needed to normally store power during the low voltage part of the AC power cycle. That and a lot of capacitors at the output side to keep a smooth supply even with a quick changing load.

And Spaceships is also correct I think, as that is a perfectly reasonable name on the module.

Göran


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## DerekT (Feb 19, 2016)

I have 4 Itanium 2 CPUs from another scrapped machine circa 2003. I only have 8 of what I now know to be voltage regulators. 5g / kilo isn't a lot of gold  Happy to ship what I've got though. Can you Private Message your address and I'll send the CPUs and Regulators? Thanks for your help with this.


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## Anonymous (Feb 19, 2016)

Derek

There's more gold on the boards that you took these from than on the VRMs mate. 

Jon


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## g_axelsson (Dec 29, 2016)

I got one board to refine and the result was posted in this thread.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=23737

Göran


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