# IC Chip valuation



## Davethescrap (Sep 22, 2019)

Hi Guys

I'm new to this forum and my first every forum and just need a little help.

I have an electronic waste recycling business in the UK 

We produce approx. 1,000Kg of IC chips per mth and send them in batches of 5,000Kg to the refiners in Europe. I have noticed that the price does not change significantly if the IC's are old (15yrs old) or New (5 years old). All the processors are black plastic with tight surface mounted legs. There are no ceramic IC's.

Does anyone know an independent lab that could provide a service to test a batch of IC's for each load, therefore giving me an approx value instead of praying on the refiners results.

Very much appreciate your time.

Kind regards

Dave


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## nickvc (Sep 23, 2019)

Welcome to the forum Dave.
I always recommend Guardian Laboratories in Birmingham, ask to speak to Austin 0121 359 8233.
Reasonable prices and decent result times.


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## anachronism (Sep 23, 2019)

Yeah I agree with Nick. They are very good. We use them regularly.

Jon


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## kurtak (Sep 23, 2019)

Dave

Unless you put "the whole batch/load" of the chips through this process you will NEVER get a sample that represents the whole load

If you just pull a sample of the chips - the assay of the sample is going to ether represent a number much higher then the load or much lower then the load

in other words - the sample is going represent the sample - not the load

:arrow: https://advchem.com/videos/19-videos/64-acc-incineration-process

Kurt


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## Davethescrap (Sep 23, 2019)

Hi Nick

Thank you so much for the contact. Spoke to Austin today and sent off a 1kg sample so hopefully there will be some good news. Much appreciated, I will let you know how I get on.

Kind regards

David


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## Davethescrap (Sep 23, 2019)

Hi Kurt

Thank you for your reply.

I agree with you totally. The majority of our equipment are large batches of the same equipment so we could receive 35,000 card readers with 3 different IC chips. Each Sweet Potato box will hold approx 600Kg IC chips and in that box will be 600Kg of the 3 different IC chips.

Speaking to Guardian Labs today, they suggested that a sample is taken every 100Kg. Maybe 0.5Kg and an average taken for each box.

It maybe a crude process but hopefully it will keep the refiners on their toes. Obviously I will keep quiet if the sample I sent is far less than I'm getting at the moment.

Thank you all so much for your help, it much appreciated.

Kind regards

David


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## nickvc (Sep 24, 2019)

David I don’t know if is practical but if you could sort and separate the three types of chips you could get a much clearer idea of the actual content of the lot, I’m thinking along the line of do the same readers all have the same chips if so sort at that point.


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## Davethescrap (Oct 3, 2019)

Hi Guys

I received the results back from the Birmingham lab and the results were at 1.3g of gold per Kg, very happy with that result.

My next question, can I process the IC chips myself. Could I hammermill the chips, separate metallic from non-metallic and smelt the metallic. 

I thought of an idea to hammermill the chips and then process via an electrostatic separator but the this won't work as the gold bonding wires are 0.0381mm thick and the electrostatic will only process greater than 0.1mm.

Would a shaker table work (water density separation) or would it be easier to sample 5Kg per white bag of IC chips (white bag holds about 300Kg) five different samples of 1kg and send the reports to the refiners and hope they pay attention.

Any ideas ?

Many thanks for all your help.

Kind regards

Dave


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## nickvc (Oct 4, 2019)

You need an assay of each type of chip I think as then you can have a base line as to the total contents in any batch, it can’t be lower than the poorest chip in any batch and if you could sort the chips as they arrive as I suggested above you could get a very accurate answer.


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## ChemGeek (Jan 7, 2020)

I have been offered 5kg of mix of Intel 286/386/486.
Seller wants $220 per kg.
I will be allowed to see those chips before paying (it is not a mail order).
Are they worth this much?
I was never processing ceramic processors as these are rare, so I would rather offer them to collectors (and collect them myself too).
Seller says that these processors will usually have badly bent legs or few legs missing, so collectors won't be excited.


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## snoman701 (Jan 7, 2020)

In USD, yes...not sure on any other currencies.


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## snoman701 (Jan 7, 2020)

Get in to pentiums and such and they are not though, just fyi.

So that's specific to intel ceramic gold capped 486/386/286.


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## ChemGeek (Jan 7, 2020)

Thanks for your opinion.
They are not Pentiums only earlier 286/386/486.
Of course I will have to learn how much Au can be reclaimed from them when processed...


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## GoIdman (Aug 4, 2020)

Hello fellow refiners,
Can anyone help me out with an information about the gold cap IC in the picture. I cannot find any helpful information on google about this chip. I would like to know if its more valuable like collectable or should i go for gold recovery instead.








I also have found some ceramic ICs that i haven`t came across until now (the small rectangle ones ar AMD, and the other small one has only some inscription 811CJ {a small half flower then 7112}). I have no knowledge about the collectable value of these chips. (please see picture below) 



Any information is wellcomed.
Thank you.


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