# Advice on processing these Military board



## luke100395 (Sep 4, 2014)

Hi everybody this is my first post on the site i have had a good look through the site and found it to be extremely educational and helpful (perhaps a little hard to find thing, but non the less a BRILLIANT site). I'm new to the game and have currently been just collecting materials and i have done a little bit of Cell refining, as me being an electrical/electronic engineer is what i felt comfortable with. I've looked through most of Lazersteve's videos &info sheets and also most of Gold'n'scrap's videos and walkthrough's.

Anyway i'll get to the point.......... 
I have these and i was wondering what everyone's personal opinion is on how best to get the gold from them.....??










For the CPU's
I was thinking of breaking the up a bit, dissolving them with AR, then add sodium nitrate, then remove silver chloride using ice & sulfuric acid to remove Lead and finally use Sodium Metabisulfite to precipitate the Gold.

The connector pins on the boards
Going to use a Sulphur Cell as i'm keen on this.

The Gold topped IC's 
Not a clue yet...... i was thinking of doing them like the CPU's. So any advice would be nice here please.

Normal IC's
Collect and incinerate then treat what's left in a process that has slipped my mind at this moment.

Any Opinions and advice is welcomed and taken on board!!!

Thanks in advance Luke L :mrgreen:


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## mls26cwru (Sep 4, 2014)

processing this kind of stuff is going to be difficult and not good material to start on as a biginner to refining.... unless you have a very good lab set up for this (fume hood, glassware, scrubbers, protective equipment) I would think twice about attempting to refine this material. You would be better off using a heat gun to desolder the gold capped chips and then just selling the chips and the boards.

Another option, since you have some boards that are really laden with gold cap chips, is to sell them on ebay. people go nuts for that kind of stuff on ebay... often times they will pay well more than what it is worth. 

Im sure some other memebers can give you an idea what the value would be.


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## luke100395 (Sep 4, 2014)

Thanks for the advice. do you have any idea on the potential yield? i was thinking somewhere near to 30grams...

There's about 70-80 of the bigger CPU's then about 100 of gold topped IC's


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## resabed01 (Sep 4, 2014)

luke100395 said:


> i was thinking somewhere near to 30grams...




There is no way to determine yield until after the boards have been processed. Speculating before that there may be 30g in the lot will only set you up for disappointment later.
I'm sure some of the more experienced members here could throw out some numbers but none would be that accurate.


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## luke100395 (Sep 4, 2014)

I completely understand. Thank you  I have done a few calculation comparing these CPU's with similar as they're not standard PC CPU's and the average yields and used minimums to get 30 grams but like you said, wont know until they're processed.


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## g_axelsson (Sep 4, 2014)

Can you post the maker of these boards and some of the type numbers of the gold topped IC:s / CPU:s?

It almost looks like transputer boards (components used for building parallel computers from around 1990) and they have quite a lot of enthusiasts still interested in them.

Göran


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## luke100395 (Sep 4, 2014)

Here's some of the IC's and CPU Part numbers and how many there is. i don't have board numbers as i'm at work. and does this make the valuable if they're still desirable? would i get £100 a board?  

Intel A80386-20
Intel A82380-20
A82786 x 2
BT458KG110
Altera 1810GC-45
MSX008510 x 4
AM27C 2048
Motorola DSP56001RC27 x 33
GPS CLA58012BW X 36
Intel D8259A-2 x 2
Intel A80186-10
AD526CD-9502 x 64
AD625-AD-9451 x 32
CY7C342-35HC-9449 x 10


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## glorycloud (Sep 4, 2014)

They look more like art to me. 8) 

How much for the lot?


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## luke100395 (Sep 4, 2014)

£800 for the lot plus postage to wherever you are.


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## g_axelsson (Sep 4, 2014)

Once upon a time it represented a lot of computer power. I wonder what it came from.

Though, I don't see a lot of interest from collectors of old computers. There is a lot of analog processing on those cards, maybe some telecom equipment.
Some of the chips may be worth more than the gold content for collectors, you can always try searching for similar auctions on ebay.

If you refine it you have to show us the gold! 8) 

Göran


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## luke100395 (Sep 4, 2014)

Don't wory guy's I'll take plenty of pictures 8)


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## glorycloud (Sep 4, 2014)

Total weight of what your are offering?


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## eastky (Sep 4, 2014)

Just scratching my head here in the USA. You want 800 pounds for the lot. That equals roughly $1307.00 US dollars.
That is per a currency convertor on the net. 

You are guessing there is 30 grams of gold in those boards. 30 grams at todays spot of 40.64 per gram is $1219.20 

You aren't going to recover 30 grams from those boards. There might be 6 to 9 grams in those boards and that's a BIG might.


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## Esau Nisalile (Sep 4, 2014)

Hi Luke,
AR means aqua regia which is Hcl plus nitric acid(HNO3). You dont need sodium nitrate unless you meant to use the nitrate in place of HNO3. The gold toped Ics can be combined with the ceramic processors except gold heat spreaders are to be removed and processed separately. While the other go direct to Ar, the heat spreader are first leached with 50/50 nitric/distilled water, collect gold foils then
Ar or Hcl/cl. When using Ar add HNO3 in small increments to avoid the denoxing step need later. After dropping gold powder combine them, redisolve again to refine your gold. 
More important read hoke and study the forum every thing is here. Practice safety.
Brgs,
Esau.


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## Claudie (Sep 4, 2014)

I think there may be more than 6 - 9 grams of Gold in that lot but I still made a face like :shock: when I saw the $1307.00 US dollars. I have been selling my boards way too cheap!

EDIT: You may pull that price from ebay. They are some very nice boards and the a lot of the Gold is visible.


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## luke100395 (Sep 4, 2014)

eastky said:


> You aren't going to recover 30 grams from those boards. There might be 6 to 9 grams in those boards and that's a BIG might.



Even if i was to get an average 0.2 grams for every CPU i would get 15 grams.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Sep 4, 2014)

luke100395 said:


> eastky said:
> 
> 
> > You aren't going to recover 30 grams from those boards. There might be 6 to 9 grams in those boards and that's a BIG might.
> ...



You are not going to get close to that yield on those chip's. All or most look to be soldered onto the boards. That is going to make your yield go down because each one that is soldered to the board means that the chip is going to be missing most of the gold on the pins or leg's because it mixes with the solder or the leg's were not plated to begin with.


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## glorycloud (Sep 4, 2014)

The picture could be higher res but the gold capped chips look like they could be socketed
and not soldered.


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## silversaddle1 (Sep 4, 2014)

Judging by how high they stand off the board, I'm going with Glory and saying sockets.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Sep 4, 2014)

There is that possibility. Only the Shadow knows. :lol:


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## Anonymous (Sep 4, 2014)

Luke you're being a tad optimistic by asking for the full value of the potential gold there.

You might be better having it refined on a toll basis by someone in the UK for you. That way you get your gold and someone else stands to benefit too for the effort of processing them.


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## luke100395 (Sep 4, 2014)

spaceships said:


> Luke you're being a tad optimistic by asking for the full value of the potential gold there.
> 
> You might be better having it refined on a toll basis by someone in the UK for you. That way you get your gold and someone else stands to benefit too for the effort of processing them.


 
You wouldn't happen to know anyone who I could talk to do you? 

Thanks Luke


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## GOLDbuyerCA (Sep 4, 2014)

i have sent a PM. 

i think there is 20 plus grams of recoverable, 1/3 of the action is the work, chemicals, plus shipping. 
i think it could be a one off deal, and there for tighter in value, to seller. 
i have processed these boards before, i found such in Flight computers, radar echo processor boards. using Motorola high temp spec chips, and custom gate array chips. all very good. above 1/10 of 1 percent by weight. 

But, shipping and handling, the refining time and charges eat up into this, for me , nearly by half, 

So Yea, the boards are good, the value is there, it is just down to the deal, that works . Cheers from Thomas in Vancouver Canada


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## shmandi (Sep 5, 2014)

glorycloud said:


> The picture could be higher res but the gold capped chips look like they could be socketed
> and not soldered.



They are on sockets for sure. Sockets have gold plated tube inside each hole.


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## luke100395 (Sep 5, 2014)

glorycloud said:


> Total weight of what your are offering?



Just got around to weighing them and It's about 10-12 kg


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## glorycloud (Sep 5, 2014)

So, that would be 22 to 26 pounds of boards and $50 to $60 per pound if my math is correct.


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## Geo (Sep 5, 2014)

The quickest and easiest way may not be the most cost effective way. The one way to ensure that you recover the most precious metals from your material is to have the least amount of steps. You leave some behind with each process. Breaking it down creates a different set of steps for each type of component. The quickest with the least amount of steps and the most likely to recover the most from it is this, incinerate all of the material as is (legally at an approved incinerator) and mill to as small you can. magnetic separation of all the magnetic material. Pre-wash with hcl to remove all the higher reactive metals and treat like bench or floor sweeps. It is the fastest and easiest way to process it all.


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