# Processing IC chips



## Malc84 (Feb 17, 2022)

Hi All,

I was hoping someone may be able to tell me the best way to process IC chips using the hydrogen peroxide method through from incineration to gold precipitating. I am aware there are probably loads of threads already on here however looking through for a while I cannot seem to find a step by step guide. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Malc


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## kurtak (Feb 17, 2022)

In your other thread (Unable to precipitate gold) I posted a link to page 12 of a thread about processing IC chips

*Read the whole thread !!!*









Gold inside chips (black, flatpacks - not CPU)


I had some time and was interested to find how to get that gold out. There was few processes mentioned here already so I just combine few of them and here is what I did. We all know that there is gold inside. :) I do not have ball mill build yet so I decided to try another way. Incineration, or...




goldrefiningforum.com





In other words - the info you are asking for here - was already provide in your other thread - you just did not take the time to look at *ALL* the info in the link I already provided you with !!!

Kurt


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## kurtak (Feb 17, 2022)

Want to learn more about process IC chips - here is another link ----------









My results of specific types of IC chips, flatpacks and BGA


This is my little contribution to the site, I have tested various types of chips for gold content using these steps: 1. Separation of the specific type of chips, removing paper stickers if any, removing wires from the edges of the chips with scalpel (*some types of chips are processed along with...




goldrefiningforum.com





This thread (which is 25 pages long) will not only give you info on processing them - but will give you *LOTS* of info about the amount of gold you can expect from the *many* different types of chips

*Read the whole thread* - AND - what you will see is that -----------

Chips can range anywhere from as little as one tenth of a gram per pound to as high as 4 grams per pound *& everything in between* 

*AND* - by the way - I (you) don't/didn't even have to do a search for that info - *because it is at the very top (the very first thread) of this forums home page*

In other words --- it (the info) is right in front of you - you just are not looking !!!

Kurt


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## galenrog (Feb 17, 2022)

Here is abit of advice that I was given. It is in two parts. One I followed fairly quickly. The other took a long while to sink in. 

Read Hoke. Read it again. Read it again. By the third read, some understanding should begin. 

Read the Forum. That’s right. Read the Forum. Every thread. Every post. Takes a lot of time, but worth every minute. 

While doing each, write notes. Write questions. Use real paper. 

I honestly do not remember who gave me this advice. It may have been Harold. Regardless of who gave it, it is the best advice given me in the several years I have been a member.

Time for more coffee.


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## Dougplogan (Feb 18, 2022)

Malc84 said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I was hoping someone may be able to tell me the best way to process IC chips using the hydrogen peroxide method through from incineration to gold precipitating. I am aware there are probably loads of threads already on here however looking through for a while I cannot seem to find a step by step guide. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> ...


I have luck doing it this way. It probably isn't the best way but works for me. First I burn the chips. Make sure they are all completely ashed you do not want charred pieces down the road. Next I add them to a blender and add water to hydrate and completely break up the chips. Pour it through a kitchen strainer. This allows me to pick out alot of the tin which gathers in balls. Anything that doesn't pass through the strainer goes back into blender. Next I rinse them with tap water over and over and over this will rid you of the ashes. Next I take a magnet separate all ferrous material. I take all non magnetic material and boil in hydrochloric acid for an hour. If not using heat leaving over night usually will suffice. This gets the tin out of material. Now rinse well. Next aqua regia. I usually use hydrochloric acid and sodium nitrate poor man's aqua regia. But any way will work. Then drop the gold. Then process the material again, the same material you just processed in aqua regia. I drop gold with smb. You will get dirty gold drop. But this is fixed by one more aqua regia step to refine the gold that was dropped. As far as all your magnetic material it will have way more base metal in it. My advice is to use nitric acid for that but hydrogen peroxide will work. Just add all magnetic material to hydrochloric for 24 hours rinse well now no more tin. Add to hydrochloric acid add peroxide just a squirt is enough then let sit in a month maybe two when all metal is dessolved you will have a black sludge in bottom of bucket. That is your precious metals. Take care because the slightest movement will stir it up into solution. Siphon most of solution off then run the rest through a filter to catch all the sludge. It will be fine powder. Depending on the chips it may have some tiny gold foils if chips had gold plated wires.


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## Malc84 (Feb 18, 2022)

Dougplogan said:


> I have luck doing it this way. It probably isn't the best way but works for me. First I burn the chips. Make sure they are all completely ashed you do not want charred pieces down the road. Next I add them to a blender and add water to hydrate and completely break up the chips. Pour it through a kitchen strainer. This allows me to pick out alot of the tin which gathers in balls. Anything that doesn't pass through the strainer goes back into blender. Next I rinse them with tap water over and over and over this will rid you of the ashes. Next I take a magnet separate all ferrous material. I take all non magnetic material and boil in hydrochloric acid for an hour. If not using heat leaving over night usually will suffice. This gets the tin out of material. Now rinse well. Next aqua regia. I usually use hydrochloric acid and sodium nitrate poor man's aqua regia. But any way will work. Then drop the gold. Then process the material again, the same material you just processed in aqua regia. I drop gold with smb. You will get dirty gold drop. But this is fixed by one more aqua regia step to refine the gold that was dropped. As far as all your magnetic material it will have way more base metal in it. My advice is to use nitric acid for that but hydrogen peroxide will work. Just add all magnetic material to hydrochloric for 24 hours rinse well now no more tin. Add to hydrochloric acid add peroxide just a squirt is enough then let sit in a month maybe two when all metal is dessolved you will have a black sludge in bottom of bucket. That is your precious metals. Take care because the slightest movement will stir it up into solution. Siphon most of solution off then run the rest through a filter to catch all the sludge. It will be fine powder. Depending on the chips it may have some tiny gold foils if chips had gold plated wires.


Thanks Doug, this is the difficulty of not having access to Nitric acid. You managed more gold than I did(from your other comment), all I ended up with was a crumbly powder type substance with a couple of tiny flakes of gold. Ill keep researching and try again.


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## Dougplogan (Feb 18, 2022)

Malc84 said:


> Thanks Doug, this is the difficulty of not having access to Nitric acid. You managed more gold than I did(from your other comment), all I ended up with was a crumbly powder type substance with a couple of tiny flakes of gold. Ill keep researching and try again.


If your not using nitric you can use hydrochloric acid and bleach or hydrochloric and sodium nitrate. Even dessolving copper or base metals. If you can do a few batches you'll get the hang of it. When using aqua regia like that on base metals the gold is the last thing to dessolve. So as base metals are gone then the gold starts to go into solution. Basically use stannous test and soon as you start getting positive gold tests stop filter off the liquid. Throw your filter back in and start with the aqua regia again. Then it should be gold going in solution. It will just have to be refined a couple times. Also on dirty. Solutions like that use hydrochloric acid to rinse the color through filter or any rinsing at all really. Water will cause base metals to precipitate out. Also if it helps last two batches of ram I did I got 3.8 grams gold from 7 pounds of mixed ram then I got 4.8 grams from 10 pounds of mixed ram. Total from chips and fingers. Powder your getting could be from many things explain your process in better details and may get a solution out of it. My guess would be when your rinsing with water your getting base metals as a white precipitate.


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## Malc84 (Feb 18, 2022)

Thanks Doug. I'm just gathering information at present before starting to process the chips so do not have a defined process as such. I should be ready to start processing them soon though so will feed back what I intend on doing for your review if that is ok and then also my results once finished.


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