Hello,
I recently got into gold recovery from e-waste and im wondering if i can use ashing method (burning of components to ash) on CPU and Ram fingers and then process it with nitric and Hydrochloric acid like i’ve seen people do.
Have you tried ashing method for rams? I am also new and looking how to recover gold from fingerless and chipless ram. I have recovered gold from chips and fingers but from remaining card I am unable. Kindly guide how to recover from remaining card and what is the ratio of gold in it.
Hello and welcome to the forum.
I have done full ram sticks and other extension cards (video, sound, lan and so on) with ashing (burning until full ash).
If you go down this road the following will happen, which is no joke if you don`t do it properly!!
If done properly:
-set up your ashing medium (I had a 200l barrel with a fume collector on top (fully closed system) wood fireing from below, charcoal and water filter for the fumes with a big ass sucking fan, and a long chimney (5m) )
-use a pot with a lid with holes on it (this will help to evacuate the gasses produced by the PCB burning) so most of the gas burnes with the fire going on in the barrel.
-depopulate and separate all usable components and sort on the type they are. (mlcc capacitor, mlcc resistors, legged ic chips, BGA ic chips, fingers and other components)
-before fully ashing make sure you use the same type of boards when packing the pot, otherwise youl end up with PCB not fully ashed.
-After ashing you need to crush or grind, so you need something to do that.
-after that the usual way of refining (from PCB you will mostly get copper and a very little amount of gold)
If done properly, you have to move very large volumes so the investment into the setup will be recovered and you should make a profit (the barrel lasted me only for 20 firings)
If not done properly!!!! (NEVER attempt it, don`t do by any means)
-pack all type of pcb (without selectively depolulated and sorted material) randomly in a metal bucket or a large open metal container
-start using open fire from a blowtorch or a gas furnce. (very toxic gases and compounds will fill the air around, you will mostly inhale all those gases, and end up in hospital or worse and everyone around you including animals will suffer the same fate.
Dont play with that stuff unless you are prepared for the consequences.
If you are a newbie,
download HOKE`s book and learn, read and ask before you do anything. Dont just jump head in first because you saw a few youtube videos.
Be safe.
Pete.
