# Mixed cards processing



## kjavanb123 (Jun 5, 2013)

All,

I have scrapped 8kg (17.63lbs) of mixed computer cards (PCI, memory, etc), and used the paper cutter to remove the fingers as close as possible, and weigh the total fingers was 350g (0.77lbs), I am busy scrapping other PM containing parts including flatpacks , and ICs, will post the net weight on those items as well.

The mixed cards,



Fingers,



Flatpacks from memory cards being collected in a separate bucket,



ICs and N/S bridges, so far weighing 200 grams (0.44 lbs),



Also this is my set up for cutting the fingers off the cards, pretty fast I could do this 17lbs in 40 mins,



I want to process them and post results.

Regards
Kevin


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## skippy (Jun 5, 2013)

Hey Kevin,

I just wanted to say good luck and be patient with the chips. I tried to do some chips, and I should have made sure they were incinerated white throughout or at least have ground them finer. I only got a third of a gram from a pound and a half of chips which were a mix of memory and other chips. Also be patient and careful with your panning/separating. I'm sure I lost a lot doing that too. Recovering PMs will eventually make me a patient fellow. 


I thin burning to ash is the way to go in any case. The chips if they aren't ashed and only pyrolyzed to carbon are still pretty tough. After burned to a white ash right through, the chips disintegrate so much easier.


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## kjavanb123 (Jun 6, 2013)

Skippy,

For removing chips from the cards I have designed a machine that uses the compressed air to just scrape everything from the board, I have a 1mm mesh under the set up to catch the tiny MMLCs. 

I want to. Use cyanide to strip gold, there are some post related to cyanide leaching.

Regards
Kevin


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## Claudie (Jun 6, 2013)

I have been seeing more posts lately referring to Cyanide, I sure hope you guys have educated yourselves with the safety precautions of such a method. I understand it is extremely dangerous and doesn't give second chances. I don't think this is something anyone should do in the back yard or garage, and should only be practiced in a professional laboratory environment with proper safety equipment in place. Stay safe!


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## lazersteve (Jun 6, 2013)

Aside from the dangers of using cyanide, one must be aware of the costly proper disposal requirements of cyanide wastes. Most metal cyanide salts and solutions are considered hazardous waste and require one to follow and maintain stringent storage, usage, and waste disposal record keeping. In the US the EPA has very strict laws governing the disposal of cyanide and it's salts. If you decide to have your wastes picked up and hauled off, be prepared to pay very high fees for safety containers, pick up, and disposal. Illegally disposing of this sort of waste can land you in prison and/or cost you a very large fine.


Steve


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## kjavanb123 (Jun 6, 2013)

Claudie,

Safety is the most important thing, that is what I postponed the processing the fingers, until I have read all the related threads and even pay the consultant.

But for scale I am working cyanide is the most economical methods.

Regards
Kevin


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## kjavanb123 (Jun 7, 2013)

In this post he talks about 20 grams m-nbss with 30 grams of sodium cyanide, in 1 liter of hot water

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=13548&p=136593&hilit=Cyanide#p136593

In this post Juan confirms the following ratio, 42 grams of sodium cyanide, 7 grams of m-nbss, and 1 gram of lead which later recommended not to be used as it will make it difficult to drop the gold using zinc, dissolve in 1 liter of hot water, is enable to dissolve 3 kg of gold pins.

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=6683&p=61382&hilit=stabilized+cyanide#p61382

In the same post, GSP, metions twice as much as m-nbss and not using the lead or peroxide, another member suggested, 
160 grams of NaCN with 53 grams of m-nbsss, and 20ml of peroxide, which later on removed from the list per GSP recommendation, dissolve in a gallon of tap water, will be able to dissolve 2 toz of gold in this solution.

I am trying to formulate a ratio of sodium cyanide, m-nbss, based on information provided, 

For 1 kg of gold e-waste then we have the following,

42 / 3 = 16 grams of sodium cyanide,
14 / 3 = 5 grams of m-nbss,

I have 0.77 lbs of fingers which is removed from cards, and I wanted to try the cyanide to leach so to get the chemical ratio right, please advise, as I am reading more about the safety.


Thanks
Kevin


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## squarecoinman (Jun 7, 2013)

Kevin, I do not understand this , I hope you will explain this to me and the others 

you have 350 gram of cut fingers, lets assume you get 1 gram of gold 
by your cal calculation you would need 16 gram cyanide to get 60 gram gold, so you will need 16 divided by 60 = 0.26 gram of cyanide 
and the price of cyanide will be very very cheap about 0,35 cents 

But you do something that is extreme dangerous, get it on your skin and you are dead.
also the cost for safety and disposal will be extreme high.

As you may know cyanide will also take other metals , and this means that if you would crush your chips , you would still have to refine it and thus there is no point in using the cyanide. If you would use it only on fingers it would work, but you will need to mix in zink and have to re-refine the zink cake 
now when using HCL / peroxide and later HCL / clorox , you would safe money and time as long as your operation is small and the change you die is a lot less.

If you would go BIG it would start to make sense over 250 kg of fingers every week, would be cheaper then AP ( I also take the safety cost ) 
but you would then be talking about a industrial setup, away from town, and lots of permits and regulations and some serious investments.

anything less you would make a series of AP tanks and would put 10 KG in number one and filter tank number 7 and make that tank number 1 etc etc. 

I see that you write that you want to go BIG and you really seem to be happy for cyanide , I hope you will try to convince me Why cyanide would be better.

regards squarecoinman


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## kjavanb123 (Jun 7, 2013)

I have this small batch to start, as there are some 300 kg (661lbs) of mixed cards every week, along with 20 tons of PCBs monthly, which contains the pins and connector pins, slot pins, all these partially gold plated, so it would be cheaper to go to cyanide leach to recover gold from them. 

But I wanted to get the feeling on how to do this cyanide leach on this small batch first, so I would know the optimium concentration of chemicals, and temprature, then scale up.

As for safety, everything is being discussed here on the forum, which can be practiced in this small batch.

As far as the ICs and flatpacks, there route to recover precious metals would not be cyanide, instead the method you described, so I won't need cyanide to process them.

Hope this answer your question,
Kevin


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## patnor1011 (Jun 7, 2013)

I think you are confused.
To go big does not mean just big amounts to be processed. But big investment too. It is hard to imagine how do you want to prepare 20 tons of mixed pcb for cyanide leach.

Cyanide leach is being utilized by mining industry. Gold refining from electronic waste is utilizing different techniques.
Cyanide lech is used on plated pins but there is no way you will be able to sort out pins from 20 tons of waste in a month. Simply not possible. If you think you can shred all that 20 tons and then use cyanide leach on that, then you are seriously mistaken and you are going to red numbers fast.

Please do yourself favor and forget about cyanide. Research and try to implement incineration, screening and sorting and then send your product to place which can handle it.
Or if you have appropriate financial backing create such a place and educate yourself on what to do to be successful. 

When do people finally realize that while you can improve some processes, there are no shortcuts in this field.


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## patnor1011 (Jun 7, 2013)

It really scares the shi& out of me when somebody casually talk about scaling up with using deadly poisonous gas and implementing proper safety he read about on internet. 
Sorry Kevin and do not take this personal but I have to say it.
I was following your endeavors with interest. Be it processing of copper mine tailing dump in Pakistan, ores, catalytic converters, motherboards.... 
You seriously need to stop pursuing your dreams with your eyes firmly shut.
Forgive me but I have seen it many times when people gave you advice which you ignored as it was not something you believed. Instead you went ahead with your own understanding of what needs to be done, and then started over again as it was not working as you expected. Aren't we all do exactly that sometimes? Yes, sometimes we do. 
Not many of us though plan to wash 20 tons of electronic scrap in cyanide.
I decided that I will no longer be some virtual obstruction on your road to success. I will no longer post in any of your threads as my posting makes no sense for you anyway, and it looks more and more as just rambling. 

I wish you all the best and to succeed in whatever you chose to do.


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## Smack (Jun 7, 2013)

patnor1011 said:


> I think you are confused.
> To go big does not mean just big amounts to be processed. But big investment too. It is hard to imagine how do you want to prepare 20 tons of mixed pcb for cyanide leach.
> 
> Cyanide leach is being utilized by mining industry. Gold refining from electronic waste is utilizing different techniques.
> ...



I laid it out for him about 8, 9 months ago maybe more Pat, about how boards are done.


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## kjavanb123 (Jun 8, 2013)

Patnor,

Thanks for your reply, and I have consulted with a firm in Singapore which has a 2500 ton per month e waste recyclying and refining facility the, the consultant there laid out the plans for me, since labor is very cheap compare to the ones over seas, he actually proposed segregation process for 3 tons a month just PCBs using man power, once we can get 20 tons of PCBs per month as this figure right now being exported, then the consultant won't recommend manual labor for segregation of the precious metal containing items on PCBs.
As for cyanide, I have learned and also my consultant mentioned this before, is only used for gold plated items in e-waste, for the ICs and such a crushing ball mill, then acid tanks would be able to take care of it, also a filter press would be handy to clean up the solution.
CRT recycling is also available to us, which I am consulting with a lead smelting shop to test on a 20lbs sample from CRT glasses to see if they can extract the lead oxide and turn it to lead metal from them.

Again, my plan is to reach 20 tons a month or more, but as of right now I have labors using vendilated areas to remove the PM items from the boards, and weigh in the items to get some statistics.

I never said i am doing 20 tons right now, but whatever I do is confirmed by the guy over in Singapore which founded and ran the refinery there for 17 years.

Thanks all for your advise
Kevin


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