# cellphone scrap



## liorst26 (Jul 9, 2020)

Hello i'm new here.
good to know such cool forums with a lot of knowledge about gold refining
i have alot of cellphone scraps and i want to know what the best method to recover the gold inside?
thank you


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## Martijn (Jul 9, 2020)

Welcome to the forum liorst26. 

First of all, we are dealing with dangerous acids and toxic solutions that need a safe approach and responsible waste handling. Study and learn to work according safe practices. Know the risks and have neutralizing liquid nearby. 
Use nitrile disposable gloves and safety glasses. Always when working with chemicals. 
Use closed reaction vessels with scrubber flasks and preferably a fume hood. Or work outside in a clear area. Prevent gases from escaping to unwanted places like your work area. 

There are a lot of different components in cell phones. 
First learn and study a couple of things before you start buying acids and throwing in stuff thats hard to separate later on. 
Scrap the different parts. Separate the ic's from the plated pins and cicuit boards and other parts, use a magnet to take out iron. 
Take off all metal pieces, watch youtube for clues how to scrap and where to find valuables. 
Dont burn it all at once. There are better ways and less poluting. Different components need different processes. 

The most important thing to understand for beginners is solder (tin) is your enemy. Get rid of it in some HCL if mechanical separation is not possible. Search 'tin paste' to understand what other new guys ran into. 

Its a lot of fun if you are interested. But recovering gold and other precious metals from phones and other e-waste is not easy. Some parts are some require a larger understanding of the chemistry behind it then others. 
To do it professionally on a big scale is another thing. Especially if your employing people. 

Lots of information here. Learn to use the search function and narrow down your search results. 
A great way to start to learn gold recovery and refining is with close cut ram fingers and the Acid peroxide process. 
https://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=12914

But start reading dealing with waste:
https://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=28521

And a must read for all new nembers: 
https://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=796

Desribe your intended steps before you start anything. We will advise or confirm. 

Have fun, be safe. Get stannous chloride. 8) test test test. 
Read Hoke's book:
https://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=19798&p=268065&hilit=Printable+version+of+hoke#p268065

Martijn.


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## butcher (Jul 10, 2020)

Martijn, thanks, for the great tips and great answers to getting started.


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## Johnny5 (Jul 10, 2020)

butcher said:


> Martijn, thanks, for the great tips and great answers to getting started.



Agreed. That was going beyond the call of duty. Thank you.


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## liorst26 (Jul 10, 2020)

thank you for the information, why i'm asking? i saw this video (the process start from minute 30:00) with sodium cyanide that strip the gold in seconds.
i watched over and over and didnt understand the process here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lve4Eg9_DK4&t=825s

thank you


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## Martijn (Jul 10, 2020)

Your both very welcome, just returning the favor and passing it on  
The path often followed to the GRF:
Boredom, watching YouTube, seeing shiny things  looks too easy, attempt to duplicate the video, get into trouble or a mess, look for advise, quick answers or help, get reality check from GRF members. 
Gained some friends, if I may say, a great hobby, study, very addictive, and not being bored again, ever :lol: :lol: !! 
Great forum. love it!


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## Yggdrasil (Jul 10, 2020)

Priceless and to the point, Martijn :mrgreen: 


> Gained some friends, if I may say, a great hobby, study, *very addictive, and not being bored again, ever* :lol: :lol: !!


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## Naresh (Jul 14, 2020)

Martijn said:


> Welcome to the forum liorst26.
> 
> First of all, we are dealing with dangerous acids and toxic solutions that need a safe approach and responsible waste handling. Study and learn to work according safe practices. Know the risks and have neutralizing liquid nearby.
> Use nitrile disposable gloves and safety glasses. Always when working with chemicals.
> ...



Sir
I m working of 200 pice of cell phones,,first i remove all parts using hotplate,,then clean bords i put in hcl proxide solution,,,after 4 days i collect the gold foils,,,then i wash the gold foils with water and then wash with hcl to remove copper choloride1,,then put gold foils in hcl,,and heat the solution,,then add nitric acid in 0.5 ml ,,0.5 ml,,,0.5 ml,,,then use some urea,,,filter the solution,,,add smb,,,,gold was droped out,,,,,but solution was not clear after 1 hours,,,i boil the solution,,,all gold was droped,,,solution was clear,,,and then gold start to desolve in solutin,,,in 15 second,,aal gold was gone,,,i add more smb,,,but nuthing drop,,,i use ferrous sulfate,,,but nuthing drop,,,then i put copper pipe in solution,,for some days,,,some powder was droped out,,,but when i melt this powder,,,that is ash only,,,some powder i put in new AR solution,,that was no gold,,,i think i lost aprox 2 gram gold

Then i work on connector and pins of that 200 mobile phones,,,in first bach,,,i burn all connector,,,put hcl to remove tin,,,wash well,,put in ar solution,,,using urea,,using smb,,,but nuthing drop out,,,,,in second bach of that pins,,,i put in hcl for one day,,,then wash well,,,then use nitric ,,,,then wash the foils and plastic,,,some steel in that pins,,,that was not desolve in nitric,,,i remove some of steel using my hand,,,some steel still in that foils,,,i put it in ar solution,,,filter the solution,,,use urea,,,use smb,,,nuthing drop out,,,this time i dont use farrous sulfate,,,,i use copper pipe,,,,i mix both solutions,,,from first bach,,,and second bach of pins,,,and put copper pipe in that solution for some days,,,nuthing drop out,,,copper pipe was desolve in solution in one day,,,then i put new copper pipe in solution,,,,solution colour was very dark black,,,and deficult to filter evry time,,,thik solution

How can i recover my gold 
Can i recover gold 
Or i lost my gold
Pls help me


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## silversaddle1 (Jul 14, 2020)

Best way to recover gold from cell phones is to sell them whole to a good recycler and take the money and buy some gold. Quick, easy, and no headaches.


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## denim (Jul 14, 2020)

silversaddle1 said:


> Best way to recover gold from cell phones is to sell them whole to a good recycler and take the money and buy some gold. Quick, easy, and no headaches.



Agreed. If you are looking for gold cell phones are a lot of work for little gain, especially smart phones, which are primarily screen and battery. Much better to sell them and buy some gold filled, or karat to refine, if 'ya just gotta get your refine on. Refining is fascinating and rewarding no doubt, but there are certainly good things to refine, and then there are bad things to refine. Cell phones, in my opinion, would be toward the bottom of the list with fingers, and chips being more toward the top. By chips I mean 'more chips per ......than in cell phones'. Like RAM memory, or BGA's, and other black epoxy chips from all different types of boards. Getting gold from e-waste is a quantity driven endevour. You need a good steady flow from various donors to pull from it what you need for refining, to make it worthwhile.

Then you have gold filled and karat where the percentage of precious metals to waste is much better. Much less time for disassembly, going to the scrap yard to get rid of the spoils, dealing with more spent acids properly, etc. Much funner than e-waste.

This is just my opinion of course. I don't refine e-waste anymore but I do help out a local jeweler every now and again, which is always fun. What ever you do...if you venture into refining always be safe and follow all safety precautions, and study well. Good luck.

Denim

edited for chip clarity


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## rickbb (Jul 15, 2020)

If your gold drops but then re-dissolves you still have free nitric in the solution. Use sulfamic acid not urea to use up the remaining nitric, works better and drops any lead that may be in the solution. 

Clear solution is no indication of all the gold dropping.

200 cell boards will yield very little gold, worth less than the nitric you used so far.

Next time don't use nitric, use bleach instead. Works better, is cheaper and is easier to get out of the solution than nitric. Just a little heat or sitting in the sun will pull the chlorine out of the solution.


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## Martijn (Jul 15, 2020)

Good advise and info given by the other members. Phones are not worth your time, but it's still fun to try. If you are serious about it, be responsible about the waste you will create for that little bit of gold. And be selective about which parts to process and which not. 
Study a bit more before proceeding. 
And how did you burn your connectors? Think about the environment please. 

To answer some of your questions: 
Your gold is not gone, it's still somewhere, as long as you haven't thrown anything away like used filters. And if you did not blow it out of the crucible..

Did you dissolve all of the boards from the 200 phones, or just a batch? 
I know Cyanide looks very easy, I stay clear of it, but that's just my personal view. One mistake can be your last I feel. 
I've recently been looking into a thread that started some months ago and can't believe I missed it so far: iodine leach. It may just make cellphone and E-waste recovery a whole lot easier, leaving a lot of bunring, scrapping and separating in the past. 

Back to your case:
When gold drops, (and if there is not much in solution to begin with) it can be very fine and stay suspended in the liquid for more than some hours. Give it a day and carefully decant or siphon off or evaporate the solution before dropping it down to concentrate it, don't boil. That might help give a better precipitate. Lots of info on that subject here on GRF.
And don't use urea. It's a misconception that just doesn't seem to go away. (youtube) It can even form explosive compounds if I'm not mistaken. And it does not neutralize free nitric. No idea why not, but that much I've understood.

When adding nitric to an AR bath wait for a reaction. If nothing happens, don't add more to get a reaction. Wait for slow fizzing, heat some more and give it some time. If you do it right, you don't need to get rid of excess nitric. And the SMB will take care of that last little bit.
It sounds like you have too much left in that foil batch. 
Chlorine works fine for foils and small amounts, I've heard. I have enough nitric left to last me some time at the amounts I use, so never tried it. 

Do you have stannous chloride to test? That would help a lot. Knowing there's gold in solution or not makes your process a lot more focused and effective.

Did the second AR bath on the pins completely dissolve all the metal? If not, you may have gold dropped out on base metals in the filter.
Did the second copper pipe completely dissolve? If not, your gold should have fallen out onto it and not have re dissolved again. And how long was it in there before it turned black?
The dark color possibly comes from copper1 chloride, put some HCL and an air bubbler in there and if so, it should turn bright green, it could have become a kind of Acid 'Peroxide' after all nitric has been consumed by the copper. In that case gold would also have dropped out on the copper in the AP. Siphon off after settling and test the powder in the bottom. 

Have you studied waste treatment yet? The stockpot is your last resort if nothing else works. May cost some copper with all that CuCl and excess acid in there if you leave it in too long.

Martijn.


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## Geo (Jul 21, 2020)

When you are describing a mess like the one above, photos helps members determine what was done and how you reached this point. Adding photos is very easy and will get you some better answers.


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