# silver in crystals



## bmgold (Nov 23, 2008)

I was told that frequency controlling crystals contain a little bit of silver inside them. Almost every electronic device I've seen has some of these inside. Just one more item to collect when scrapping stuff for PM recovery and refining. Every little bit adds up. 



Sorry, pictures didn't turn out better. Hard to get a good picture of small items.


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## butcher (Nov 23, 2008)

I dont know if they contain any silver but crystals are quartz. (grown silicon dioxide)
if you strike a crystal it will put out electricity, piezoelectric, or sparks
if you put electricity to it it will vibrate at a certian frequency,
american Indians had a white quartz rocks when rubbed together make thousand of tiny sparks,(like flashlights before battery's).


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## Seamus (Nov 23, 2008)

Some quartz crystals sometimes have silver inclusions in them. Sometimes there are pyrite inclusions in quartz crystals. It's caused by the quartz forming around a speck of mineral such as silver or pyrite. I have found a couple of such clear quartz crystals.


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## bmgold (Nov 24, 2008)

My guess is that the silver is in the solder connecting the crystal to the wires going outside the metal case. 

Interesting comments about the silver inclusions in clear quartz and the "flashlights". I have banged quartz rocks together in the dark to see the flash of light given off before and it is a neat effect.


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## bmgold (Dec 25, 2008)

While doing some internet surfing looking for silver uses, I found some interesting information. We all know about silver switch contacts but how about silver based inks in RFID tags or in the coatings on CD's and DVD's? Silver paste is used in 90 percent of all crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, which are the most common type of solar cell. Probably not a large supply of scrap solar cells but might as well save the solar cells from calculators if you are scrapping one for the switch contacts anyway. 

This info was found at http://www.silverinstitute.org/

I know silver isn't worth as much as gold and the cost to extract it may be more than it is worth but if we are refining scrap electronics and other stuff then why not save up the silver containing scrap and save a bit of this precious metal from the land fills? RFID tags are hidden in about everything we buy now and anyone who burns their own CD's or DVD's probably makes scrap ones when the data writting fails. Then there are the AOL disks that come in the mail. There must be a way to extract the values from these items. Anyone tried it?


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