# yield data on blank boards w/ gold traces?



## kronix (Nov 25, 2012)

hey everyone, hows it going?

i was wondering if anyone had any yield data on blank circuit boards with gold traces? i do realize that the yield data will greatly differ based on amount of traces, plating thickness, purity of gold, etc, but i was just hoping for maybe some other people's numbers to compare with my own once mine have been completed. 

i didnt weigh my starting material because i didnt have a big scale. i think i have about 40-50 lbs of unpopulated gold trace cards, half already through the AP process, so it shouldnt be long now. i have chosen to just leave the foils in the AP bucket until im done processing all the material, that way i lose less to filters/spillage. 

i will post my own yield data once i have completed the process, and will probably have a steady stream of this material for a while, so i can keep updating the yields so others can estimate value based on the overall average. 

heres some pics of the material i have, and once im done i will weigh all the stripped boards at the scrap yard for data.


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## tek4g63 (Nov 25, 2012)

Could just be the picture, but the bottom two look to just be copper, no gold plating. I will warn you about the boards that are just copper. They are coated with a substance called an OSP. That stands for Organic Solder Preservative. It prevents the copper from oxidizing before it gets soldered. Because it is an organic compound, there is a risk that it can be absorbed through the skin.

Thad


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## kronix (Nov 25, 2012)

They are all gold, no surface copper here lol. They have been put through AP and it left foils behind. 

Is there any type of pre wash I can perform to remove the nastiest or a way to test their presence? .I do wear gloves at all times except when hand picking the boards from the gaylord of cards.


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## Geo (Nov 26, 2012)

theres a surface calculation you can go by but even if you put a gun to my head i couldnt tell you how to do it. asking the yield on a random board is not going to get a good answer. if you were to ask the yield on close cut fingers, well, you may be able to get some information on something like that.


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## kronix (Nov 26, 2012)

haha, sorry, i was just wondering if other people process material like mine, and if they had any good numbers. 

my curiosity got the best of me, and since i was changing out boards from my AP bucket i figured i'd filter it as im about half done now, so ill hopefully have a yield soon, time permitting. 

it looks like an alright amout of foils in my filter so far, im just about to filter the bottoms. im using a permanent coffee filter not paper filters first, just to get the bulk of the gold, then ill filter a second time with paper, just to catch all the smaller pieces. 

either way its free material, and it has gold on it, so i figure every little but counts.


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## butcher (Nov 26, 2012)

Circuit boards can have all shapes and sizes of copper traces on and inside the fiberglass, it would be very difficult for someone to see a picture or even hold the board in the hand and give you a yield for copper or gold on the circuit board, plating thickness may also vary, you may be able to get a guess, as Geo suggested by looking at the surface area for yield of fingers, and relate this to your gold plated traces on the circuit board, by comparing square inch and plating thickness, but to me this is still just a guessing game,.

GSP has made some very good posts in this area, if you can follow the math.

After all of the guessing games are over, what gold you get refined is what gold the circuit board yield was minus costs of acids or time if it will cost you.

I try not to count eggs, it always seems to hatch out different than I figured, especially with electronic scrap.

Gold plating always looks like a whole lot more on the circuit boards, or electronic scrap or as flakes or powders, than it will by the time it hits the melting dish or the scale.


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## kronix (Dec 1, 2012)

well, i weighed the blank boards after they were stripped and the gold i recovered, heres the results:

26 lbs of boards ( although they were wet when i weighed them) 
1.4 grams of gold, needs another refining though, its not pure enough yet.

i am still learning the recovery process so i wanted to save up some gold before i refined it further, id like to get to at least 7-8 grams.

for now im just having fun with foils, but its addicting, my wife tells me i need to take a break from my gold fever haha.

cheers - ian


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## butcher (Dec 1, 2012)

Keep saving it up, the day you melt the button and she holds it in her hands she will have a different perspective on the gold fever, that and I guess eventually they come to realize there is no cure, once we are so far gone.


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## CBentre (Jul 15, 2013)

kronix said:


> well, i weighed the blank boards after they were stripped and the gold i recovered, heres the results:
> 
> 26 lbs of boards ( although they were wet when i weighed them)
> 1.4 grams of gold, needs another refining though, its not pure enough yet.
> ...



Hi kronix, just wondering if you have had any updates on this project. I am curious as to what you received in money for the blank boards after removing the gold. Thanks


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## patnor1011 (Jul 18, 2013)

While I don't have any numbers to share I once processed about 50 of similar boards. Mine were from fire alarm units and looked incredibly rich. I must say that I was very disappointed with yield.


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## CBentre (Jul 19, 2013)

Thanks Pat, I really didn't expect to see great results from the gold recovered. I'm more concerned with the copper content after the gold is removed.


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## bswartzwelder (Jul 19, 2013)

If you process the boards in AP and use a bubbler system, the copper should be dissolved into the AP solution.


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## Mmon2616 (Apr 28, 2014)

I just also received 25lbs of blank circuit boards and other small blank chips. I absolutely have the same gold fever but my fiancé loves the break from me. Lol. I'm in the process of just cleaning the grime off of them with a little soap and water. There are about 300 small boards and chips. I don't expect much non the form of gold but I do expect it to be fun. Plus it was free. I have 50 pentium pros and a couple of other ceramic chips to process. I love it when I drop the button in her hand and the look on her face because it's heavy. Then she asks me " can they make this into a nice ring" lol.. If anyone has a better method than the Hydrochloric/peroxide mixture to do large quantities of blank circuit boards in open to suggestions. That may not be large for most people buy I am small time . It's good to hear people with the same issues. Lol


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## Mmon2616 (May 1, 2014)

Out of the 25lbs of blank boards I recovered 2.3g. I think it could have been more but I left it a couple time and it got hotter then I wanted and boiled away. On the other hand I had 5 pentium pro that I received from a friend For free and I got 2.3g from them. I also had a strip of 17 Motorola ceramic vintage chips that produced. 3.4g. I just received my first 20lbs of unexposed industrial xray film. It's 17"X4.5" Agfa D5 . Its a test batch to see what method to use.


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