# scrap gold in cell phones?



## Anonymous (Aug 5, 2007)

hi everyone...new to the forum, and just getting in the scrap gold "hobby"...lol. I had a question that I was hoping some of you could shed some light on - I know CPUs, memory, and other computer parts are great for scrap gold, but how about cell phones? i recently opened up an older motorola just to take a look inside, and it looks like there's a fair amount of gold plated parts...am i correct? i'm asuming anything in there that looks like its gold plated...IS gold...is this a safe assumption? i can post pics if that would simply things...

oh, and what's the best way to take them off / get them out? I've got a good number of old phones (and printers, etc..) that I'm planning on having some fun ripping apart, but i thought I'd ask you experts first. 

oh, and any other pointers would be greatly appreciated =)

TIA!!


----------



## aflacglobal (Aug 5, 2007)

Welcome to the forum cheungsta.


----------



## Dog Biscuit (Aug 6, 2007)

Most everything that looks like gold is gold. I'm not sure if they are worth messing with, or not. I currently have over four thousand cell phone boards, and haven't developed an economical way to process them yet.

You can remove the components, soldered to the boards, by heating with a heat gun and scraping them with a putty knife

Some of the contacts in the cases require some creative thought.

I have tried processing a test run in Acid/Peroxide (you can read about it here, on the forum) with limited results. I may try trimming the gold traces. on my band saw, and process like fingers. The gold is incredibly thinly plated (you can rub it off with a pencil eraser). 

Overall, unless you can obtain a large number of phones very cheaply, I don't think they are worth much.


----------



## lazersteve (Aug 6, 2007)

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the post.

Mike is right on the money, the plating on the boards is soooooo thin, you can use AP with a toothbrush and scrub it off in seconds flat. You don't even have to remove the other parts. It's a good idea to remove the other parts to strip them, but not required the board will just start corroding elsewhere after exposed to the AP unless rinsed throughly.

You should take this guide tour also:

Guided Tour

Be sure to post lots of pictures and ask lots of questions, hopefully *before* you get caught in a bind. :lol:

Steve


----------



## Recyclebiz_com (Feb 27, 2008)

is about $1.15 per unit; silver - about 20 cents worth; and platinum, roughly 7 cents/unit.
Biggest problem with scrap cells is the fire retardant used in the plastic cases. Nasty stuff.
Scott Andrews


----------



## 61 silverman (Jul 8, 2009)

Here is a little item that I have found on both cell phone boards and mother boards, rather rare to find them tho..





Mark


----------



## 61 silverman (Jul 8, 2009)

The lid as you can see has completly disolved leaving the gold solder, gold plated traces, and the ceramic sub-structure.. I doubt that there is any gold in the ceramic on this item.. Nice gold solder.. The lid was removed using AP.


----------



## g_axelsson (Jul 9, 2009)

61 silverman, that small thing is a crystal, part of the oscillator circuit that controls the speed of the processor or the frequency of the radio. Sometimes they have a small amount of gold inside but I have rarely found any in newer parts.

/Göran


----------



## Platdigger (Jul 9, 2009)

In Silvermans picture, isn't that to the right of the crystal a monolithic capacitor?

Also to the right of the crystal, aren't those tiny ones?

It would seem to me that in any atempt to process cell phones, one would have to go after any pd as well as gold and tantalum. Not to mention copper.

And this is no simple process. I am sure it would require grinding as well as incineration, and that on a grand scale.
Randy


----------



## g_axelsson (Jul 10, 2009)

Yes, they are monolithic capacitors both to the left and right and they are usually tiny. I just had to check my odd scrap bucket to see in what sizes the crystals came in. The first one I found was slightly larger than a cm but then I found one crystal 4x3x1 mm. I actually have monolithics that are larger than that!

Obviously there isn't a lot of gold on one crystal, you need a large number to get any measurable amount so I just throw them in the odd object bucket and it adds up. Some rainy day I will process it... not this rainy day, I have other things to do today.



/Göran


----------



## 61 silverman (Jul 11, 2009)

The board pictured is, from an old Apple Computer the ones that look like a monitor.. there are 2 on this one board.. every little bit adds up.. Mark


----------



## texan (Jul 12, 2009)

I have been pulling apart a few old obsolete cell phones. 
Below is a linear amp chip from a Motorola phone from the early 90's.
The chip is 6mm on a side according to the spec chart.


----------



## 61 silverman (Aug 17, 2009)

Texan, Do you have a picture of that piece before opening up??? It would be nice to be able to identify BIRD'S EYE VIEW,, Thank you Mark


----------



## texan (Aug 19, 2009)

I wrote the chip numbers down...CHP 1232 and it's twin CHP 0230.

Data link on chip

http://www.digchip.com/datasheets/parts/ch/parts_ch05.php

I have a number of the phones but they are in storage at present. When I locate the box I will post the model number of the phone.

******UPDATE*******

Model number of the phone is Verizon Motorola 120C...and there are several variants of the 120 series...120E does NOT have this chip. 

Texan


----------



## Lane5625 (Jan 14, 2015)

I'm also new to the forum. I processed 9 cell phones including one from Motorola dated 1998. I got .6 grams of gold. I found several of the boards, after I processed them the coating separated and what looked like a small trace turned out to be a large flat section making the entire board gold. I checked the rest and found four more were that way. They all came from the keyboard section. I Bought 31 more phones for $40, I'll see what I get from them.


----------



## rickbb (Jan 15, 2015)

You won't make any money buying them like that. The price needs to be much lower or free to make it worth the effort. 
Unless you just want to learn or have some gold buttons.


----------



## Ocean (Jan 18, 2015)

My company buys scrap and reusable cell phones and cell phone boards.

For a price list of re-usable phones, email me please: [email protected]


----------



## Iprefere18K (Mar 22, 2015)

Recyclebiz_com said:


> is about $1.15 per unit; silver - about 20 cents worth; and platinum, roughly 7 cents/unit.
> Biggest problem with scrap cells is the fire retardant used in the plastic cases. Nasty stuff.
> Scott Andrews



It's really $1.15 each? Are you sure?


----------



## goldsilverpro (Mar 23, 2015)

Iprefere18K said:


> Recyclebiz_com said:
> 
> 
> > is about $1.15 per unit; silver - about 20 cents worth; and platinum, roughly 7 cents/unit.
> ...


That guy hasn't been on here for 7 years. At the time he posted that, the gold price was $960. Today it's about $1180. That would make it a little higher.


----------



## Iprefere18K (Mar 23, 2015)

Yes, you are right. I didn't consider that. But I'm very surprised that one cell can sell for more than a dollar. I always sold them for $0.5 each.


----------



## jason_recliner (Mar 24, 2015)

Consider also that seven year older phones may contain significantly more precious metal.


----------



## Goldwasser (Mar 28, 2015)

Iprefere18K said:


> Recyclebiz_com said:
> 
> 
> > is about $1.15 per unit; silver - about 20 cents worth; and platinum, roughly 7 cents/unit.
> ...




Yes, I would say $1.15 per phone is right on target based on today's gold price, at least when you look at it from a value per pound basis.

Assuming the average cell phone with case minus battery weighs about 5 ounces and buyers (myself included) will pay around $3.75 per pound for them currently, it comes to $1.17 per phone on average.

The older phones may contain more PM's (do not know either way) but they also weigh more. So from a buyers perspective when purchasing by weight, the newer phones may have a better weight to pm ratio than the older phones but I am only speculating there.


----------

