platinum in hard drives

Anonymous · Aug 10, 2007

I've mentioned this in my few posts and I even saw mention of it somewhere but I can't seem to find it again.

Per the research I've done, the film on hard drive platters contains platinum, for a 3.5" platter, there is about 1 gram of film, and the film will contain between 10% and 35% platinum (more platinum the newer the drive). so 10 platters would be 1 gram or more. as far as metals go it looks like there's only 3 including the platinum then some grease and carbon and such.

I've kept an eye on this on ebay and seen lots of 100 platters going to $50ish. so going high on price and low on platinum I figure $60 could get you 10 grams of platinum, which is over $400 spot price. Not to mention on the optimistic side (which I never take when seriously considering a purchase) if it were 100 platters of 35% platinum then it'd be 30-35 grams, so over 1 troy ounce.

So is this as good as it looks, high value and easy refining (at least for platinum or so I'm guessing since there's only 2 contaminating metals), should easily cover shipping and chemicals? am I missing something that makes this much less attractive?

lazersteve · Aug 10, 2007

Doomsday,

Here's a post with Hard Drive information:
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=234

The numbers you are using may not be accurate. When dealing with percentages be sure you start with the right figure for the source material. For example "10-35% of the magnetic material" may seem to say 10-35% of the foil weight, but in reality the foil may contain organic bonding chemicals and other non-magnetic materials. The 1 gram foil per platter may be 90% adhesives and 10% magnetic materials.

This is why I always do my own yield tests or assays if you will. Armed with actual facts before investing in large quantities of scrap can save you a lot of disappointment and wasted energy in the long run. I personally have not determined the amount of Platinum in any hard drive platter, but I will one day. This is yet another reason to keep accurate mathematical data on your refining projects.

Steve

Aristo · Aug 15, 2007

I have an opportunity to buy some hard drive platters. The are from one to five gig drives. Its a fairly large amount ( 300 lbs ) and the asking price is $28.00 per pound. Does this seem reasonable based on recoverable metals?.

TIA.

Lazersteve , your contributions along with others have been very well appreciated . If you ever require materials to do any testing....pins , CPUs etc , please let me know. I would be willing to help if I can.

badastro · Aug 15, 2007

I wouldn't pay more than the value of aluminum in those platters. Platters from such small drives are likely to contain little if any platinum at all. Drives from 1997 have a 50% chance of containing platinum according to one source. Your platters seem to be around the 1997 and older crowd.

No one seems to know how to extract values from the platters anyway, so right now they are just scrap aluminum.

I think you're getting hoodwinked on the deal.

lazersteve · Aug 15, 2007

Right on Astro,

Who really knows what these things are worth? * I wouldn't jump on the Platinum platter bandwagon just yet until someone comes up with some real yield data and a reliable process to recover the values.

Steve

*= Edit Delete "Tia"