# Processing sim cards



## Palladium

Just wanted to post a simple process i have found for processing sim cards. I have tried processing them by shredding them in the past. I have also tried processing the whole chip. The problem with that is all the washing you have to do to remove your gold solution from all the left over material. Then after all that washing you have to concentrate your solutions down by evaporation. Pain in the but! Then if you just try and run the material without shredding it the sim card has a micro chip on the back side. That micro chip is on a piece of plastic that is glued into a recess in the sim card that creates a void where your gold solution will get trapped. The glue is a gel type and that causes problems also. On the reverse side (top) that you can see is the gold traces where the chip makes contact.

Now the easy way in any process is to segregate materials so you have less to process. I found a way to do just that with these. I boil the chips in a solution of NaOh to remove the gold, plastic, and the micro chip. When the plastic piece releases the gold is still attached to the top side on which it is plated to the copper traces and the micro chip is on the back side. After i do this i take all the and put them into a bucket with holes drilled into the bottom so it allows the plastic pieces with the gold plating attach to fall through, but not the chip housing itself. Like in the ap process. The good thing about this is that the foils are still attached to the plastic and you can get down right rough with them and the gold will still stay attached without breaking into fine pieces. Once the plastic pieces with the gold on it are separated you can then run them in ar without a problem. Washing the solution from this material is a whole lot easier also. All that's left is the spent micro chip and the thin piece of plastic it was attached to. It takes 100 grams of NaOh and 500 ml of water per 2 1/2 lbs of chips. These are placed in a stainless steel vessel and brought to near boiling for 2 hours. You need to stir every 30 minutes after you first place them in there to release the chips. Once you finish drain the liquid and wash the chips with hot water for about 30 minutes to remove any residual NaOh and then process with ar. Processing this way is simple and easier than any other method i have found. Please note hot NaOh is not to be taken lightly and needs to be treated with respect.


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## Palladium

:mrgreen:


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## Palladium

:mrgreen:


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## lazersteve

I've processed many pounds of these, don't get too excited about the appearance of the glob of foils, they are low yielding pieces, especially with the card stock still attached.







The ones in the above photo yielded 0.84 g per pound.

Steve


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## Palladium

That's about what these average Steve. Maybe a little more toward 1 gram, not sure yet. It takes 1200 sim cards to make a pound. This was from 5 lbs. That's 6000 sim cards. Each card has 9 traces so it took 54,000 traces to equal 5 grams. :shock:


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## NobleMetalWorks

Palladium,

Thanks for posting this, brilliant way to do it by the way...

Scott


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## samuel-a

I have processed the same type as in Steve's picture. We got almost exactly the same results, 0.83g a lb.


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## HENDRYK

I'm new here,thanks to admin,i wanna learn about processing this sim card I found this forum good forum for me to learn


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## CBentre

samuel-a said:


> I have processed the same type as in Steve's picture. We got almost exactly the same results, 0.83g a lb.



Hey Sam, 
Hope all is well, are the Sim cards the same as flex tabs from bank cards and satellite cards? 
The only reason I'm asking is because I came across a few hundred and victorz guide states 6-12g per lb so I'm a little confused here. Thanks for your help.


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## Geo

victor may have used someone elses data instead of processing and using his own data. theres no way that is accurate. i just completed a sample of sims from poudouche and will post when i get the button melted. 448g of raw sims yielded .8g of refined gold powder. thats on par with others yields with the same material.


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## Palladium

CBentre said:


> samuel-a said:
> 
> 
> 
> I have processed the same type as in Steve's picture. We got almost exactly the same results, 0.83g a lb.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hey Sam,
> Hope all is well, are the Sim cards the same as flex tabs from bank cards and satellite cards?
> The only reason I'm asking is because I came across a few hundred and victorz guide states 6-12g per lb so I'm a little confused here. Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...



My yields are based on the total overall weight of the materials. The quote Victor made was for yields based just on the weight of the foils with the plastic back attached. That's all i can figure anyways.


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## CBentre

Palladium said:


> CBentre said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> samuel-a said:
> 
> 
> 
> I have processed the same type as in Steve's picture. We got almost exactly the same results, 0.83g a lb.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hey Sam,
> Hope all is well, are the Sim cards the same as flex tabs from bank cards and satellite cards?
> The only reason I'm asking is because I came across a few hundred and victorz guide states 6-12g per lb so I'm a little confused here. Thanks for your help.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 
> My yields are based on the total overall weight of the materials. The quote Victor made was for yields based just on the weight of the foils with the plastic back attached. That's all i can figure anyways.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the quick replies guys, the only thing left would be to ask Steve. His comment on his photo states .84g per lb and those look pretty clean.


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## lazersteve

My photo is of the exact starting material, no card stock, simply bare SIM eeprom with contacts. Reported yields (0.84g per pound) are actual numbers from items displayed in the attached photo above.

Steve


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## poudouche

Geo said:


> victor may have used someone elses data instead of processing and using his own data. theres no way that is accurate. i just completed a sample of sims from poudouche and will post when i get the button melted. 448g of raw sims yielded .8g of refined gold powder. thats on par with others yields with the same material.


once again thanks 
geo 
your findings were consistent in what is reported in the literature
1ponds ( 454 grams ) of sim cards yields 0.8 grams of gold
regards,
poudouche


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## solar_plasma

Have a look at the card chip on the picture IMG_2614.JPG in the thread http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=17714&start=20

Maybe iodine-leaching would be a good alternative for specially that kind of scrap....for those, who are working with iodineat least.

edit: I don't think so anymore.


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## samuel-a

Who is Victor ??


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## jimdoc

samuel-a said:


> Who is Victor ??




I think they are talking about this Victor;
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=15104&hilit=victor#p152722

Jim


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## CBentre

samuel-a said:


> Who is Victor ??



Yes sorry Sam Jim is correct, I was refering to victorz cheat sheet. Thanks Jim I just had a peak back at this thread and noticed the question.


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## Anonymous

*Palladium*, thanks for starting this thread. I was looking for info about processing sim cards, and it appears that there are only 3 threads on the subject line.

The process of using NaOh is much faster and can be done in less time than you think. I put some sims in my solution and within 10 minutes, the plastic started floating and the gold wasn't attached to them. So this process is much faster.

After doing some myself, and referring back to this thread, it appears (according to some pictures) that in order to get the clear plastic and square chip, it would seem to me that after you separate the gold from the plastic, you would get a fresh batch of NaOh/H2o and boil the gold so that way the plastics will come off along with the adhesive. My first batch went off as expected until, after I put them in the AR, I started noticing plastic floating (I didn't know it at the time) to the top. After stirring and keeping the heat going, it was clear to me that there still was more material to come off before putting them in the AR.  . 

I noticed the issue when I reviewed this thread and I saw a picture where there is just clear plastic and a black square in the middle. Unless that's what you got out of the AR, I would think you gave the gold pieces another NaOh/H2O before putting them in the AR. All is working good, but now I see all the plastic pieces floating. The AR process is going well, but I feel that if I would have done like I said I was going to do, I believe my recovery time would have been faster. I notice that in order to get to the gold, the plastic has to come off first. Now I understand. My glass stirring rod appears to have some goo or something stuck to it because some of my gold foil is stuck to the rod and won't come off. :shock: 

Doing the sim cards the way you stated in your original post, to me will be the fastest way to process the sim cards. Yet, After the original bath, I would make a new bath of the same and just put the gold pieces in there and do the same until the clear plastics come off of them, then on to the AR.

Also, I want to add my own yields to this thread since it interests me. I did a pretty good job in recording my weights of the *STANDARD* sim cards. For those that don't know much about sim cards, here is a Google link to the images.
https://www.google.com/search?q=sim...p0VJeaLYeryQTh3oLgDQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg#imgdii=_

There are many sizes and types of sim cards out there. But, from what I see, most people will probably be dealing with the three (3) standard sizes (*Standard, Micro, Nano*)

*BELOW ARE WEIGHTS FROM STANDARD SIM CARDS - 100 COUNT!*

*** 100 sim cards on average weigh approximately 43.075 grams. (_average weight from 4 batches weighed_)
*** 100 gold sims without plastic body weigh approximately 6.4 grams. Should be less if the clear plastic from the bottom was removed first)
*** 1 single gold sim without plastic body weigh approximately 0.064 grams.
*** 1 standard plastic body weigh approximately .3 - .4g.

The information above should be used as a _*guide only*_ to help you get an average weight in gold with the standard sim cards ONLY. 
========================================================

*BELOW ARE WEIGHTS FROM MICRO SIM CARDS - 50 COUNT!*

*** 50 micro sim cards weigh an average of 16.1 grams. (weighed from 1 batch)
I don't have any more data on the micro cards because I put them with the standard sims, but below is my count....
*
398 Standard Sims
102 Micro Sims*

I can see that ONCE you can get an average yield on each size, only then would you have the knowledge to sort what you have, and weigh them. From the yields posted, a person will be able to get a close estimate as to the yields. I think that doing in batches of 100 sim cards, about 2+ times, and then do it with all of them mixed together. 

I can mention another thing too, of all the refining I've ever done, sim cards appear to be the fastest item to refine, to me. 

Once I drop the gold tomorrow, I'll post the yields. 


Kevin

*[UPDATED]*I Forgot to add the link to the sim images.


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## GOLDbuyerCA

*Very Interesting in a way, because of such exact standardization , * it seems to me, this salvage is very much like a Pentium Pro recovery data. i for one, have been paying to much per hundred, and 
recently adjusted to 8 USD per lb. for 50 lb sizes. by my observation, the plating is 15 micro inches of 99.7 Gold. i find a trace of nickel in the actual plating, " a hardener and brightener " if one gets this wrong, 
in purchase, the processing " time and labour/ chemicals " eats up all bonus value / profit. So far, i am not doing so good, sure i can process quickly, but the yields are small, my quick estimate is .75 grams per kilogram. 
i am watching the results here in interest, thanks all. OH yea, i charge for toxic waste dump, There is a place in Richmond BC, that has a no cost for disposal. " better the toxic be known, and taken care of, than dumped helter skelter . Thomas Gx in Vancouver Canada


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## Anonymous

GOLDbuyerCA said:


> *Very Interesting in a way, because of such exact standardization , * it seems to me, this salvage is very much like a Pentium Pro recovery data. i for one, have been paying to much per hundred, and
> recently adjusted to 8 USD per lb. for 50 lb sizes. by my observation, the plating is 15 micro inches of 99.7 Gold. i find a trace of nickel in the actual plating, " a hardener and brightener " if one gets this wrong,
> in purchase, the processing " time and labour/ chemicals " eats up all bonus value / profit. So far, i am not doing so good, sure i can process quickly, but the yields are small, my quick estimate is .75 grams per kilogram.
> i am watching the results here in interest, thanks all. OH yea, i charge for toxic waste dump, There is a place in Richmond BC, that has a no cost for disposal. " better the toxic be known, and taken care of, than dumped helter skelter . Thomas Gx in Vancouver Canada


I agree totally with buying them by the lb instead of by the number count (pieces).

Are you paying $8 lb for sim cards? If so, would you be willing to sell them for a profit?

Kevin


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## GOLDbuyerCA

Are you paying $8 lb for sim cards? If so, would you be willing to sell them for a profit?

Kevin Hi Kevin, "testerman" Yes, i am downward averaging, on sim cards, With your process and efficiency 
and making a network of procurement you may be able to do a better value recovery than i. 

i form my opinion of recovery value, from the higher prices expected in the spring of 2013 and promised by
refiners in California to the Bay Area customers. " scrappers " my latest trip down from Vancouver, stopping off at Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Redding to get to Oakland, showed that falling prices, " gold value " put the damper on a lot of folks, Some scrappers were told of recovery values of nearly $100 a lb, "imperial" well some got 50, most 45 a lb, from the super concentrate "foils" 

As i am typing this Kitko is reporting gold at 40 dollars an ounce down. and falling, this whole process has shifted recovery values, to near fifty percent lower, for the same amount of work. procurement, holding, refining, and selling. i have been trying to make a trap line, giving good returns, and it is NOT easy. Shipping costs me 3 dollars a lb, just to get my values to Canada. 

All of us, should be cautious of overvaluing , promising exceptional returns, to get scrap. and rushing the job. it takes me 6 to 8 working weeks to do a full return. 

to answer your question, would i be willing to sell sim cards to you, " if i had excess, i could , but it would be expensive to reship them to your State " as it now stands, i can process all that i can acquire. . 

Listening out for your values, you have found. Thomas Gx, Vancouver Metro Canada .


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## Anonymous

GOLDbuyerCA said:


> Are you paying $8 lb for sim cards? If so, would you be willing to sell them for a profit?
> 
> Kevin Hi Kevin, "testerman" Yes, i am downward averaging, on sim cards, With your process and efficiency
> and making a network of procurement you may be able to do a better value recovery than i.
> 
> i form my opinion of recovery value, from the higher prices expected in the spring of 2013 and promised by
> refiners in California to the Bay Area customers. " scrappers " my latest trip down from Vancouver, stopping off at Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Redding to get to Oakland, showed that falling prices, " gold value " put the damper on a lot of folks, Some scrappers were told of recovery values of nearly $100 a lb, "imperial" well some got 50, most 45 a lb, from the super concentrate "foils"
> 
> As i am typing this Kitko is reporting gold at 40 dollars an ounce down. and falling, this whole process has shifted recovery values, to near fifty percent lower, for the same amount of work. procurement, holding, refining, and selling. i have been trying to make a trap line, giving good returns, and it is NOT easy. Shipping costs me 3 dollars a lb, just to get my values to Canada.
> 
> All of us, should be cautious of overvaluing , promising exceptional returns, to get scrap. and rushing the job. it takes me 6 to 8 working weeks to do a full return.
> 
> to answer your question, would i be willing to sell sim cards to you, " if i had excess, i could , but it would be expensive to reship them to your State " as it now stands, i can process all that i can acquire. .
> 
> Listening out for your values, you have found. Thomas Gx, Vancouver Metro Canada .


I did my AR solution of the sim cards, and although I don't have as much gold as I would expect, I started with LESS than half lb of them. I will dry up my powder and melt it to see how much I have. The way I'm thinking about stripping the sim cards of all foreign objects, there has to be at least 1+gram of gold per lb of STANDARD sim cards. My first batch yielded gold, but it can be better, I'm confident of that. 

I'm going to try to get some more, and this time I'm going to strip them the way I was going to do them the first time, but didn't. From all yields so far that I've read, there is LESS than 1.gram of gold in the standard Sim cards. I believe there is at least 1g+ in 1 lb of them. If a 1gram+ can be recovered from the sim cards, then if they can be bought by the lb, it'll be worth the efford, as long as the price is good and profitable. 

My first run and experiment went well. I just now know what to do before I AR the gold from the sim cards, a FRESH bath of diluted NaOH.


Kevin


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## joekbit

I had / have 50 or so micro sims, very simple weights, 10 = 1 gram, I removed the chips and guess what, 10 = .5 grams, So the numbers work out nice.


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## Palladium

*Please take the proper safety precautions when using hot NaOh !!!!!*
Your eyes being the most important. Wear eye protection and pay special attention to any mist. The mist will get you quicker than the liquid.


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## meatheadmerlin

I am wondering if it is possible for the chips from sim cards to have gold bonding wires inside the chips,
and if it would be worth processing them like flatpacks.


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## g_axelsson

Certainly possible, and when the chip is encased in clear resin you can see the bond wires and the color to find out if it is gold or not.

Göran


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## Erlandez

So.what is the best proses after this??
AP or AR proses?

Thanks

Erlandez


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## Palladium

AR !


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## Liquidau

Palladium said:


> AR !


Thanks Palladium and others for this super informative thread.
I have come upon a Ton (yes 2,200 lbs = 1,000 kg) of SIM cards. The NaOH process of boiling gently in a beaker or SS pot works great for a pound at a time. But can this be scaled up in a lab so as to get these done in some reasonable time frame? How can one boil 10 or 20 pounds at a time? Or will the process work with warm NaOH, only take longer?


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## Shark

Many years ago we would heat lye in fifty gallons drums using a burner from a gas hot water heater. Used a chain hoist to set a whole machine in it to. It would strip 50-100 years worth of built up grease in minutes.


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## Liquidau

Shark said:


> Many years ago we would heat lye in fifty gallons drums using a burner from a gas hot water heater. Used a chain hoist to set a whole machine in it to. It would strip 50-100 years worth of built up grease in minutes.


Interesting. Did you have a system for the fumes coming off?


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## Shark

Just a giant fan that exhausted straight out side building. We only used occasionally and it was back when even OSHA didn’t have much problems with it.


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