# Average recovery value of a computer



## kurt

Here is some interesting info I ran across a couple years ago when I first started scraping computers for the PMs. I don’t remember where I got it but I think it might have come from the finishers discussion forum as that was one of the first places I found info about recovering PMs from electronics.

One ton (2000 lbs) of "average" circuit board from modern computers and electronics generally yields (in a very good system) between 8 and 11 troy ounces of 24k gold. This gold is found in a number of places, including the plated gold leads referred to earlier, on plated pins inside the connectors and on the board in a number of places and on and within the ic (integrated circuits) on the board itself. In addition, there will generally be around 10 to 20 times this amount in silver from the solder and other components (although depending upon the method of recovery, this yield may not be reached). Some types of electronic board have greater yields of silver and almost no gold; this is generally the board without connector ends and major ics. There are also minute amounts of palladium, platinum and other pgms (mostly in certain capacitors, but also in some chips and connectors). Your highest yields of gold in computer scrap especially are rarely from clipped plated leads, but from the processor/cpu, memory and other ics (which can yield 2 gm/lb or more, depending upon the type and age). Many of the older electronics and early computer equipment will be much much higher in volume, while the newest (97 and newer) I would surmise would be lower, although I have not processed enough to tell you for sure. There are, of course, many other places (like automotive catalytic converters) where you can find precious metals that may be recycled, but the scope of this section seems to be on electronic board/PCB so I will stay on that subject.

So (if the above is true) the average recovery of 1 ton PCBs would be 9.5 OzT Au & 142.5 OzT Ag

At todays market price 9.5 oz Au X 1585.70 = 15,064.15 per ton PCBs & 142.5 oz Ag X 28.38 = 4,044.15 per ton PCBs.

A computer has “on average” 2 lb CB in it (this is ALL boards – mother boards, RAM, Cards & HD/CD/DVD boards) so that is about $15.06 Au & $4.04 Ag per computer

On “average” you also get about $4 in copper aluminum & tin out of a computer (this does not factor in the copper in the CBs – only the copper from the wire)

This makes the average scrape value of a computer about $23. --- that is without factoring in the PGMs &/or copper in the CBs. It would be cool if someone could come up with those numbers as well.

Kurt


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## jimmydolittle

Nice work, Kurt!


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## silversaddle1

No way.


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## kurt

silversaddle1 said:


> No way.



So silversadle1 - are you thinking the "average" scrap value per computer is higher or lower.

keep in mind this is based on per ton mixed boards averages using market PM value & local scrap yard price for copper (wire) aluminum (Heat sinks) & tin (cases) & it does not factor in PGMs or CB copper (traces) nor does it factor in other values like nickel or tantalum (of which there is a fair amount)

So actual "value" would be higher - What I am talking about here is an end product gross market value - not an end process net value.

Kurt


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## Anonymous

kurt said:


> (in a very good system)





kurt said:


> this is ALL boards – mother boards, RAM, Cards & HD/CD/DVD boards



If Kurt is counting every board and component,inside of a vintage computer,then he's pretty close on his figures for gold.A ton of "average" mother boards yield about 6.5 ozt of gold.So he is pretty close.I do not know enough about silver yields to comment on that.


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## silversaddle1

I think these figures have been disputed here before.


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## Geo

i think it depends on the vintage.it is never been disputed older models contain more gold so its reasonable to assume they contain more PM's in general.recently it has been brought up on the forum about cheap MB's from china and japan that have at least half the PM's.eventually these MB's will come to dominate the market because (1) they are cheaper to produce and (2) computers have entered the "use and discard" mentality of society.why try and make a product that is long lived when it will be obsolete before the paint dries.


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## steyr223

Now that's a trip,I was just thinking about what Dr. Poe
Had said In another post
I'm surprised nobody caught it
3/4 of an oz of gold per computer (wow)
Dr please step by step procedure,
can the average home lab do this
Thanks steyr223


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## Smack

No way, not in todays boards. I would be amazed if it reached even half those numbers.


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## Anonymous

steyr223 said:


> I'm surprised nobody caught it
> 3/4 of an oz of gold per computer


I do not have time to find the post,however I am sure he was talking about computers like old mainframes,or something of that nature.


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## kurt

mic said:


> steyr223 said:
> 
> 
> 
> I'm surprised nobody caught it
> 3/4 of an oz of gold per computer
> 
> 
> 
> I do not have time to find the post,however I am sure he was talking about computers like old mainframes,or something of that nature.
Click to expand...


I remember reading that post & it was about computer used by large companies & government back before "personal" computers existed

Kurt


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## Anonymous

Thanks Kurt,
Thats what I thought.I know he is a little "out there" but I didn't think he was that far out....lol.


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## Dr. Poe

That's right guys, those were not pc's, but very old computers like was used to send men to the moon. Actual weight per 3/4 ounce of gold was about 120 pounds of computer scrap which had about 20 pounds of components within stainless steel boxes
which operated with reel to reel memory tapes. They didn't skimp on the gold as most was government funded.
Dr. Poe


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## Anonymous

Dr. Poe said:


> Actual weight per 3/4 ounce of gold was about 120 pounds of computer scrap


A friend of mine was telling me that,about an hour from here,there is a "mountain" of computer boards.He said that in the 60's and 70's,no one was interested in recycling pcb scrap,so a gentleman offered to dispose of the material from the space center,for a fee I'm sure. The mound ended up sitting in the same place in the back of the gentlemans property,until he covered it with dirt,thinking that it would decompose over time.My buddy said he doesn't remember exactly where this was,but he knew for a fact what road it was on,and the general area.Since then I have traveled the road countless times,looking for a big mound in the back of someones property.I am positive the material is similar to the material Poe was describing above.


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## Smack

Have bobcat and dump truck, will travel. :mrgreen:


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## nickvc

Mic that reminds me of story I heard from a guy I used to deal with years ago who was into e scrap from the start, almost. He said that there was a huge amount of plated scrap, boards and components buried and there's now a housing estate built over it...it would be worth millions now as this was way back in the sixties / early seventies :evil:


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## kurt

nickvc said:


> Mic that reminds me of story I heard from a guy I used to deal with years ago who was into e scrap from the start, almost. He said that there was a huge amount of plated scrap, boards and components buried and there's now a housing estate built over it...it would be worth millions now as this was way back in the sixties / early seventies :evil:



:shock: sounds like property value just went up :lol:


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## steyr223

So when do we leave 8)


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## joem

mic said:


> Dr. Poe said:
> 
> 
> 
> Actual weight per 3/4 ounce of gold was about 120 pounds of computer scrap
> 
> 
> 
> A friend of mine was telling me that,about an hour from here,there is a "mountain" of computer boards.He said that in the 60's and 70's,no one was interested in recycling pcb scrap,so a gentleman offered to dispose of the material from the space center,for a fee I'm sure. The mound ended up sitting in the same place in the back of the gentlemans property,until he covered it with dirt,thinking that it would decompose over time.My buddy said he doesn't remember exactly where this was,but he knew for a fact what road it was on,and the general area.Since then I have traveled the road countless times,looking for a big mound in the back of someones property.I am positive the material is similar to the material Poe was describing above.
Click to expand...


Sounds like an urban legend :lol:


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## Anonymous

Smack said:


> Have bobcat and dump truck, will travel.


Lol.....thanks but I have access to all of that.


joem said:


> Sounds like an urban legend


Certainly a possibility,however in the last 17-18 years we have owned a company,and most of our customers work for either NASA,or one of it's contractors/sub-contractors.I have heard very similar stories over the years.And this was long before goverment scrap auctions,and very long before the majority of the public,was aware of the value of computer scrap.A dear friend of mine suggested that I use an online mapping agency(google,bing,live..etc), to search for the "mountain".Excellent idea!


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## nickvc

Mic it's a fair possibility it's not a legend as computer scrap was never valued back in the start of the computer age, all the scrap I was told about came from the manufacturers who didn't care as their profits were huge and the material was considered low grade and not worth the effort to recover by the main stream refiners at the time, I gather it was people similar to the membership of the forum who decided there might be a buck or twos worth of values to reclaim without too much effort. The guy who told me was one of the first to spot the opportunity, he was taking bucket loads of some sort of valve/ diode with fine gold wires trapped in the glass, by the time he came along tons had apparently been dumped in to landfill and that was just one item...so go figure,I'm sure it's the same where ever in the world early e scrap was produced, most as stated was Government funded so it was only our money been dumped!


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## Claudie

mic said:


> kurt said:
> 
> 
> 
> (in a very good system)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> kurt said:
> 
> 
> 
> this is ALL boards – mother boards, RAM, Cards & HD/CD/DVD boards
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> If Kurt is counting every board and component,inside of a vintage computer,then he's pretty close on his figures for gold.A ton of "average" mother boards yield about 6.5 ozt of gold.So he is pretty close.I do not know enough about silver yields to comment on that.
Click to expand...


If there are 6.5 ounces Troy of Gold in 1 Ton of boards, wouldn't that break down to roughly 0.1 gram of Gold per pound of boards? Since an average computer motherboard (from my experience) weighs about 1 pound, wouldn't that figure out to about 0.1 grams of Gold per motherboard. Which would be about $5.20. I only got about 3 hours sleep last night and I haven't been awake very long, maybe my math is off but that's the way I figured it.... :|


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## Geo

possible ,but the equation will never work because the actual material the board was made of was much thicker than a mother board.more fiberglass and resin as these were mainframe computers the boards were much larger in dimensions (wider,longer,thicker) there were daughter boards larger than modern mother boards.


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## Anonymous

Claudie said:


> Which would be about $5.20


That is correct.Do not forget we are talking about ALL of the boards within a computer,not only the motherboard.


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## Claudie

Right. We have the motherboard, any add on cards, the HDD board, floppy board & the boards from the disk drives along with any slot processor present.


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## Thomaseames

I just wanted to debate the amount of gold alone processed and refined within a ton of computers. 1st off, 6 oz of Au is just wrong. I have been refining for years. I can tell u that from my research, a ton yields much more than that and nobody cites where they got there info from, yet post it as a fact. Do your own research before taking the word from some guy who throws out a figure like that cuz it's just disappointing for those in this for a hobby or to make real money. You could make much more if you stick with the older computer models, cell phones, and other electronic equipment pre-90s. There is gold in so many parts that are never mentioned in these discussions, so unless u r serious about this, go ahead and take their word for it, otherwise, take apart an old system and see for yourself the gold you see. Dont forget the monitors, inside the hard drives, inside the EEPROMS, inside the peripherals, and then all the fingers, pins, CPUs, etc. Old analog cell phones are loaded with gold plated parts. Collect, sort, and save. I have parted hundreds of older to newer computers, laptops, and an array of other gold plated and other components with precious metals in them. I have over 500 units, all broken down, but still separating boards to this minute. It's fun and kills time. I cant wait to see how much money I will get from the gold alone, thousands of dollars. The silver is got to be in the thousands too. The palladium is up there, but due to the limited amounts, new or old systems, its not that much, but still worth it. The nickel found in the hard drive disks r worth salvaging as are the magnets. There is gold at the end of the read/write arms and even gold in your printer cartridges that HP uses, and some other brands too. Gold is everywhere if u take the time to look. Nice post Kirk. I am not referring to your info by the way. Just fyi.


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## niks neims

Thomaseames said:


> I just wanted to debate the amount of gold alone processed and refined within a ton of computers. 1st off, 6 oz of Au is just wrong. I have been refining for years. I can tell u that from my research, a ton yields much more than that and nobody cites where they got there info from, yet post it as a fact. Do your own research before taking the word from some guy who throws out a figure like that cuz it's just disappointing for those in this for a hobby or to make real money. You could make much more if you stick with the older computer models, cell phones, and other electronic equipment pre-90s. There is gold in so many parts that are never mentioned in these discussions, so unless u r serious about this, go ahead and take their word for it, otherwise, take apart an old system and see for yourself the gold you see. Dont forget the monitors, inside the hard drives, inside the EEPROMS, inside the peripherals, and then all the fingers, pins, CPUs, etc. Old analog cell phones are loaded with gold plated parts. Collect, sort, and save. I have parted hundreds of older to newer computers, laptops, and an array of other gold plated and other components with precious metals in them. I have over 500 units, all broken down, but still separating boards to this minute. It's fun and kills time. I cant wait to see how much money I will get from the gold alone, thousands of dollars. The silver is got to be in the thousands too. The palladium is up there, but due to the limited amounts, new or old systems, its not that much, but still worth it. The nickel found in the hard drive disks r worth salvaging as are the magnets. There is gold at the end of the read/write arms and even gold in your printer cartridges that HP uses, and some other brands too. Gold is everywhere if u take the time to look. Nice post Kirk. I am not referring to your info by the way. Just fyi.



there is gold in the plain old sea-water also! tons of it!


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## anachronism

There's nowhere near 6 ounces of gold in a ton of computers. It's a small fraction of that.

Jon


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## jstreet

I have bunch of computer CPU's mother boards and misc boards that are before 1995 most are 1982 to 1992 several CPU are IBM 686 ceramic. The fingers are alot longer and wider then newer stuff.I have two newer mother boards.the CPU of these have half the pins and way smaller.looking forward this processing them.I don't know if I should separate all the chips pulled of boards and cards or run them all together.if I run them all together it would be close to five gallons or should I pull removable chips and the ones with glass window and run those separate.I know a lot of them are 1992.had several phone computer components that the boards were mostly black chips attached to board with about 4 to 6 chips that were removable and those were 1.25 inches long up to 2 inches


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## jarlowski1

Would love to see thomas's face when he realizes he has no where near what he thinks he has.


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