# help to remove platinum



## rfran7788 (Jun 24, 2014)

I have some circut boards with a layer of platinum and silver on both sides..theres gold too...how do i seperate them from the silicon


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## butcher (Jun 24, 2014)

By educating yourself.

Electronic scrap may contain a little bit of these metals, like gold, silver and some of the platinum group metal, you may be able to recover some of those metals from electronic scrap, by educating yourself, with information you can find in this forum, but it will take a lot of work on your part, and you may learn that you have to work very hard, to get a just little bit of metal in return, for all of your hard work in study and work to recover that little bit.

The forum is a great place to learn if you wish to learn this skill, the information to answer your question is here on the forum, your study can answer most any question you could think o concerning recovery and refining of precious metals, and the members here can be very helpful to you, with questions you may have when you do not understand something while you study and work to educate yourself.

I suspect what you see on those circuit boards is mostly just lead and tin solder, you will not find much platinum, sometimes you can see a little bit of the very thin gold plating on other base metal.

Electronic circuits are made as cheaply as possible, and the manufacturer only use valuable metals where they are needed, and normally using as little as possible to make the circuit reliable for its expected service life.

Most electronic scrap has been considered trash that is a problem for our environment because of the metals and nonmetals involved that can easily poison our environment, they are not overflowing with precious metals, although they do contain a tiny bit in them, recovering these metals from this trash is not easy, it takes an awful lot of education, it can be very dangerous, and is a lot of work for almost no return in profit.

To learn you must work to educate yourself, learn where these metals are, learn how to recover them, and learn to refine them, the information is here on the forum, if you wish to learn it is free.

Welcome to the forum the best place to educate yourself in these skills.


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## necromancer (Jun 24, 2014)

butcher is very correct !!

on this site you will find the largest resource for gold recovery & refining on the planet, and best of all its free

here on the forum we will not hold your hand and give you a free ride.

you will need to try and go through the site & find some information that pertains to your needs, there are rules here which seems you did not read before posting.

a few things for your list...

read the forum rules
read the safety section
read Hoke's book or the many books or links to books on this site

Laser_Steve has this:
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=796

its a good start !!
welcome to the forum, we can help you better if you help yourself


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## necromancer (Jun 24, 2014)

oh.....

how do you know there is platinum in those RF / Satellite Receiver boards ?


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## rfran7788 (Jun 24, 2014)

They are from the L and B
I took it to a guy who tested it


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## etack (Jun 24, 2014)

rfran7788 said:


> They are from the L and B
> I took it to a guy who tested it



Those are junk and not worth the time to remove them. (with the exception of hughesnet) hughesnet have a great layer of gold on them.

Eric


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## goldsilverpro (Jun 24, 2014)

I've been doing this for nearly 50 years and I have never seen or have heard of platinum being used on circuit boards. Maybe on certain obscure components but never on the board itself. I don't think the guy that tested them had any idea of what he was doing. What method did he use? I have seen Rhodium used on the fingers of Zerox boards in the early 1970's but that's about it for the use of Pt group metals on circuit boards.

Silver is very unlikely. Its problem is that, over time, it can migrate from one trace to another and cause partial shorts.

It is extremely likely that the white metal on the boards is 60Tin/40Lead solder plating that has been reflowed to improve its structure. After reflowing, it is bright and shiny and silvery. Until a few years ago, the use of tin/lead plating was standard on boards. Even today, I'm not 100% sure that lead is totally banned in the manufacturing of electronics, at least not in the US. If not, it is probably still used, since it is superior in several ways compared with the Sn/Ag/In or Sn/Ag/Cu substitutes. Sn/Pb solder melts at a lower temperature, has a longer shelf life, and is less expensive.

Of all the common metals, there are only 2 that have a color other than white or some shade of gray - copper and gold. And, any common alloy with color will contain gold and/or copper. And, just because a metal is white and shiny doesn't mean it's silver or platinum. There are many, many other metals or alloys that fall into that category.


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## rfran7788 (Jun 24, 2014)

I went to a jewelr and he said that there is silver and some platinum..theres also some circuit satellite l & b chips which is gold plated..like you can see in the picture..i also got me silver tester and if it turns blue when applying it..that mean it has silver in there...and it did... dont wanna throw this and its worth...so i need the cheapest method to see what i can get ..if anything in there.. I got 2 boxes full with these...each boxed is about 12 lbs

theres a quarter in the middle of pic so you can see full size of the boards..someone selling this same chips on ebay..with silver, platinum and gold in the discription....


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## necromancer (Jun 24, 2014)

rfran7788 said:


> They are from the L and B
> I took it to a guy who tested it




i have no idea what "the L and B" are.

but i wholeheartedly agree with Etack & GoldSilverPro

if your removing those from satellite receiver dishes that people use in there homes its more work then profit


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## rfran7788 (Jun 24, 2014)

you are right its the part on the tip of the arm..i got plenty.. cant i use the same method that is used to remove gold from memory chips ?


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## rfran7788 (Jun 24, 2014)

goldsilverpro said:


> I've been doing this for nearly 50 years and I have never seen or have heard of platinum being used on circuit boards. Maybe on certain obscure components but never on the board itself. I don't think the guy that tested them had any idea of what he was doing. What method did he use? I have seen Rhodium used on the fingers of Zerox boards in the early 1970's but that's about it for the use of Pt group metals on circuit boards.
> 
> Silver is very unlikely. Its problem is that, over time, it can migrate from one trace to another and cause partial shorts.
> 
> ...




is lead a good conductor of electricity??


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## maynman1751 (Jun 24, 2014)

Before you do anything else, read all of the information in the links (in blue) below my signature line. If you don't do YOUR homework, I wouldn't count on getting much assistance here. Just a friendly FYI.


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## FrugalRefiner (Jun 24, 2014)

It's not an "L and B" or "l & b". It's an LNB. It stands for Low Noise Block downconverter.

Dave


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## necromancer (Jun 24, 2014)

FrugalRefiner said:


> It's not an "L and B" or "l & b". It's an LNB. It stands for Low Noise Block downconverter.
> 
> Dave




thank you, i have much more time to see the parts then to look up the white papers

over time i have learned to "see" the values, i would still say that those boards take a lot of work to remove, the Aluminium would be worth it, one of those boards only weighs a few small grams, even if you had truckloads of dishes coming in it would be a very long while before you got enough of those boards to even pay for the 4' X 4' space it would take to store the boards. best thing would be to get a assay done on the different types, the assay will tell you what you have & its value 

my view on this is from canada, not all places have the same employee pay rates, you will need to do the math based on your location rfran7788


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## Ian_B (Jun 24, 2014)

rfran7788 said:


> .i also got me silver tester and if it turns blue when applying it..that mean it has silver in there...and it did...




If you have the red coloured silver testing solution you want it to turn blood red not blue if it turns blue it means it contains a high amount of non ferrous metal eg. copper, tin, etc

If you want the cheapest way to process these items and fastest I recommend taking it all to a scrap yard and sell it to them. you don't have to buy any chemicals, you don't have to read any books, you don't have to use the search button to find out how to process these items, you don't have to ask the same question that has been asked thousands of times, simply hop in your vehicle take them to a scrap yard that buys circuit boards have them weigh it up and walk out with your cash. 

that is the simplest way to process these items.


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## necromancer (Jun 24, 2014)

rfran7788 said:


> is lead a good conductor of electricity??



yes it is. most metals are. silver is the best so is gold but there price is a factor,


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## solar_plasma (Jun 25, 2014)

If the pictures aren't discolored by the light, the silver ones look like very thin flash plated gold on a nickel layer to my eyes. Estimating those are only 1/10 or less of usual plating thickness (in best case) you can get a clue, why this might not be worth processing (even if it should be gold).

Though, I have to say, I never ran a test on those flash plated ones, I just don't throw them away. I think you could keep them until you have the knowledge to test them, just from an educational point of view.


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## Shark (Jun 27, 2014)

The return on these boards isn't very high. Where they really stand out is working small lots at a time for the educational value. They are almost as easy as ram fingers. Sort 10 to 15 boards of the same type and work them as you would in one of Hoke's test. Small lot's for the hands on educational side. Study on how to deal with the wastes first, a very important step in the overall processing. Then work them in AP. When the entire lot in the pictures are done, then you can tell us your estimation of whether it was worth it or not. I work them myself. Every little bit adds to the collection jar. Take your time, and watch them several times a day, it builds anticipation, allows you to develop patience, teaches you how to do the process, and leaves a feeling of accomplishment when it is done correctly. 

And you may just find yourself with a big smile when you turn them into a little bit of gold.


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## rfran7788 (Jul 1, 2014)

Shark said:


> The return on these boards isn't very high. Where they really stand out is working small lots at a time for the educational value. They are almost as easy as ram fingers. Sort 10 to 15 boards of the same type and work them as you would in one of Hoke's test. Small lot's for the hands on educational side. Study on how to deal with the wastes first, a very important step in the overall processing. Then work them in AP. When the entire lot in the pictures are done, then you can tell us your estimation of whether it was worth it or not. I work them myself. Every little bit adds to the collection jar. Take your time, and watch them several times a day, it builds anticipation, allows you to develop patience, teaches you how to do the process, and leaves a feeling of accomplishment when it is done correctly.
> 
> And you may just find yourself with a big smile when you turn them into a little bit of gold.




thanks for ure advice...should i start with a silver process or gold


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## solar_plasma (Jul 1, 2014)

> thanks for ure advice...should i start with a silver process or gold



What circumstances make you believe there is silver? The same that made you believe there is platinum? Instead of going on asking senseless questions, the only way to start this journey is to read and learn or it will find the same end like 100 other short lived straw fire visitors I've met here since I joined. 

The process to start with, is not silver nor gold, it is learning and reading the adviced texts and if you follow this advice, it will turn into silver and gold. Don't be as smart and clever as the other 100, it will lead you to nowhere.


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## rfran7788 (Jul 1, 2014)

solar_plasma said:


> > thanks for ure advice...should i start with a silver process or gold
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I am reading and watching videos....just dont know where to start...but i appreciate your advice


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## Shark (Jul 1, 2014)

Go for the gold. I haven't found enough of the other PM's to make it worth going for them directly, not on these boards. Try to learn the gold aspect and as you progress you will learn the steps for cleaning up the other metals, if you keep studying. I take each metal as a separate learning step while studying although I have ran into palladium and a small amount of platinum while working with other materials and was forced to learn how to remove them as a way to purify my gold, there was such a small amount that I haven't tried to work them up into ready to sell metals. 

Run them as you would fingers, go for the gold and treat your waste later, keep studying and when time comes to work on your stockpot, you will have a better understanding of how to recover other PM's from there and maybe enough of them to add up to a fair amount. There is a good reason to study dealing with your wastes in the very beginning, if you run low on materials to work with, you can do small stockpots of waste to recover your leftovers, and have something to work with while searching out and collecting more quality material to process. It also has the advantage of keeping your waste down until you get more involved or decide this isn't for you. It isn't difficult to do safely, it just requires the study and understanding with a bit of effort.

Search the forum and learn what materials are the easiest to work with. Start simple and small. You will find that with you first gold powders the amount of knowledge you have gained will be more than you expected. Relax, take a deep breath, then read and study. You will find then that the hands on is a lot more simple when you understand what your trying to do.


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## 200%carat (Jul 16, 2014)

I have similar lnb boards remove soda mask from boards. cut them into pieces...after about 4 days they completely dissolved using muriatic acid and hydrogen peroxide ...to my surprise every thing dissolve in liquid..no gold foils. the solution is very dark so if theres silver its hard to tell... ..I hope I didnt let it stay for too long..or maybe its just not gold or silver plated. but many experts told me that theres some gold and silver there...


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## butcher (Jul 17, 2014)

It sounds like a mess there.

I am not sure what experts you have been listening to, but I think I would spend my time study to learn for myself, so I would not have rely on those experts.

Silver chloride is basically insoluble, so basically you do not have silver in the solution.


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## nickvc (Jul 17, 2014)

200%carat said:


> I have similar lnb boards remove soda mask from boards. cut them into pieces...after about 4 days they completely dissolved using muriatic acid and hydrogen peroxide ...to my surprise every thing dissolve in liquid..no gold foils. the solution is very dark so if theres silver its hard to tell... ..I hope I didnt let it stay for too long..or maybe its just not gold or silver plated. but many experts told me that theres some gold and silver there...




If your material still has any metals on them then any values will have cemented back out, if no metals test with stannous to prove presence of gold. The problem if as you say it has all dissolved you have a real mess to separate the values. If you have gold in your solution I suggest putting copper sheet into it and allow the gold to cement out. While waiting for that to occur, its not instant, I suggest some heavy reading and study here on the forum to learn the proper processes to be succesful.


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## 200%carat (Jul 17, 2014)

nickvc said:


> 200%carat said:
> 
> 
> > I have similar lnb boards remove soda mask from boards. cut them into pieces...after about 4 days they completely dissolved using muriatic acid and hydrogen peroxide ...to my surprise every thing dissolve in liquid..no gold foils. the solution is very dark so if theres silver its hard to tell... ..I hope I didnt let it stay for too long..or maybe its just not gold or silver plated. but many experts told me that theres some gold and silver there...
> ...





could gold dissolve in muriatic acid and peroxide without heat?


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## Shark (Jul 17, 2014)

The gold on most LNB boards is so thin they will not leave foils to often. They will turn to powders, even in AP unless you have some of the higher grade boards mentioned earlier in this thread. What exactly do you mean by "Everything dissolved", I have never seen an entire board dissolve, just the metals from the the boards surface. If you have managed to remove the plating from the boards, and you don't know where your metals went to, then you have started something a little to early, you haven't thought out the next step. Read up on AP on the forum, the guided tour will get there, and through that reading will find your next step.

edit: for poor spelling


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## 200%carat (Jul 17, 2014)

Shark said:


> The gold on most LNB boards is so thin they will not leave foils to often. They will turn to powders, even in AP unless you have some of the higher grade boards mentioned earlier in this thread. What exactly do you mean by "Everything dissolved", I have never seen an entire board dissolve, just the metals from the the boards surface. If you have managed to remove the plating from the boards, and you don't know where your metals went to, then you have started something a little to early, you haven't thought out the next step. Read up on AP on the forum, the guided tour will get there, and through that reading will find your next step.
> 
> edit: for poor spelling



yes all the platings that you see in the picture above ...not the board


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## 200%carat (Jul 17, 2014)

200%carat said:


> Shark said:
> 
> 
> > The gold on most LNB boards is so thin they will not leave foils to often. They will turn to powders, even in AP unless you have some of the higher grade boards mentioned earlier in this thread. What exactly do you mean by "Everything dissolved", I have never seen an entire board dissolve, just the metals from the the boards surface. If you have managed to remove the plating from the boards, and you don't know where your metals went to, then you have started something a little to early, you haven't thought out the next step. Read up on AP on the forum, the guided tour will get there, and through that reading will find your next step.
> ...



Im new to this forum..can you tell me what AP means


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## 200%carat (Jul 17, 2014)

200%carat said:


> 200%carat said:
> 
> 
> > Shark said:
> ...



Im new to this forum..can you tell me what AP means
do you mean Acid Peroxide.....cause that what i used


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## Shark (Jul 17, 2014)

AP = Hydrochloric Acid (Muriatic Acid) and Hydrogen Peroxide. AP is a term used to describe your process of acid peroxide. It is also a term used in a search to find more results describing the process and the how and when to use it, along with Acid peroxide. You had the right idea, just not enough of the know how once you got to the point your at. Breaking the entire thing down can be very complicated, but crudely put, you are recovering metals with AP (Acid Peroxide). Once recovered they still need further refining to achieve a higher quality metal. Hoke's books will guide you in refining, and is well suited to those not highly educated in math, chemistry and many other things needed to fully understand the whole picture. (As I am not educated in many these as well) The forums have a great many posts on recovering the metals from electronics that aren't described in her books, the forums are the place to learn about them. There is quite a lot to learn, and many go with recovery only, and find it better suited to them or more profitable to sell at that point, rather than refining. As you read the forums, you will find the area or area's best suited for you. I do it for the knowledge and never really expect to make any money from it, I just enjoy the whole of it. Seeing the final results of the work involved is my accomplishment. If I happen to make a few dollars, so be it, it just isn't my main goal at this time.

Edit: I am fairly new to all of this as well, please do not count me among the many true professional level people on the forums. I am learning slowly, and only doing small things to learn from still. But I am gathering a few gold powders and having fun.


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