Aussie Noobie Says G'day

TheBullionBoys · Dec 7, 2012

Hello everyone!
I'm an Australian based "Silver Stacker" that has always had an interest in the refining process & casting my own Gold & Silver Bullion bars but up to this point, interest was as far as I got (no actual action).
Recently a friend of mine that works in the telco industry told me they were replacing their 1990's "PABX" (essentially a huge, automatic, digital switchboard) & said he didn't know what he was going to do with the old one.
Immediately I saw & seized the opportunity to recycle the circuit boards for their precious metals content....
This is where I'm at now...
There's ALLOT (30-40 boards about 1" wide X 3" long) to sort & process so I've started with the obvious: removing the gold plated plug pins from the boards (1 board has yielded 250g of pins!).
I figure I'll do all the obvious/easy bits first & then get to the harder to remove & refine parts down the track.
In the starting blocks...
So.... I've sourced the Nitric Acid (70%+) & am thinking the easiest way to process the pins would be to simply dissolve the lot in the Nitric, filter, wash & smelt... Any advice appreciated regarding whether this is the right or wrong way to go etc.
As I mentioned, I'm going to leave the more difficult to extract components until I've got a little more experience & knowledge.
Advice Appreciated
So far I haven't purchased any means of smelting the metals once extracted... I'm leaning towards a "Map Gas" (propane) torch as a furnace seems prohibitively expensive...any thoughts or advice on this would be great.
Also....has anyone seen or actually used the "UFO Micro-Furnace" that's advertised on "Amazon"?
I was thinking that might be an easy way to go.
ANYWAY..... hi from downunder, I'm looking forward to sharing my progress with you all!

jimdoc · Dec 7, 2012

What's up with the poll after less than an hour of being a member?
Study the forum a bit, the answers are all here.
Seriously, can we get some restrictions on the polls? Like maybe need moderator approval?

Jim

TheBullionBoys · Dec 9, 2012

jimdoc said:
What's up with the poll after less than an hour of being a member?
Study the forum a bit, the answers are all here.
Seriously, can we get some restrictions on the polls? Like maybe need moderator approval?

Jim

Sorry about that, I didn't realize adding the "Poll" was not the "done thing" for new members.
TBH I noticed the option to add it & thought it might be an easy way to get people's opinion on what the best way to go RE smelting was.
Thanks for pointing out my error, poll removed now.

element47.5 · Dec 9, 2012

Welcome!

My first reaction to your plan is, unless you plan to acquire more and more of this material as an ongoing endeavor (or, endeavour) (or, buy gold from people and buy sterling silver and PM scrap from people) you are proposing to buy several hundred dollars of gear and deal with some no-kidding dangerous chemicals and, of course, you will be investing cheerfully into safety gear....for an "experiment" that might yield nothing, or it might yield a gram or two of gold.

Is this worth it (obviously) for you?

necromancer · Jun 27, 2014

i see these selling for $30.00 + $20.00 shipping from china or $250.00 + shipping from the usa

are they worth 50 bucks ?

butcher · Jun 28, 2014

TheBullionBoy,
Welcome to the forum, just to help you get acquainted a little with the forum, we take a lot of this very seriously, it is complicated and dangerous what we do, study is something we all do a lot of, and if this is your interest you too will be doing a lot of study, at first glance it may seem simple, with some study you will begin to see it is not, the science can become very complex, dangers are in most all of the procedures, toxic waste is generated in most all processes...

The forum has strict guidelines and rules (easy to follow for any reasonable man) like the texting to take short cuts in writing. With the dangers, chemicals and procedures we use, it is important that we use our best language skills to communicate, many members have to translate, and basically texting is not allowed.

You will find this group of members very helpful with your study, and as you have trouble with procedures. They can be kind of also be a bit rough sometimes on new members (normally trying to help point them in the right direction, to help them get started, after you are here a bit you will see why.

The skills we use can take a while to learn, it is not as simple as you think it is now, spend some time studying the forum. If these skills interest you, and you think this is something you feel you can invest a lot of time and work to learn.
You have found the best place for it.

A few places to begin, on the forum is:
In our safety section dealing with waste and many of the other topics in that section.
In the book section Hoke's book, you will also find many books free to download, But Hokes is the first to read get started in recovery and refining.
In the general chat section you will find the general reaction list the guide to the forum, and welcome to new members.
There is a lifetime of material to study on the forum and in this art and science, but the above can help you get started...

By the way, how is the weather on the bottom of the world (down under), I would love to visit down there and pan for some gold, and roundup some wildlife.