Brand spanking new to refining

[slickwidnick]

Hello, I am brand new to gold refining. I have a bunch of old cellphones that I want to process for fun and to see just how much gold is in this scrap. I've gotten as far as removing all the circuit boards, removed all the steel shields and the frames that are connected to the boards that the shields sit on, and I've broken the boards into small pieces of about 1 - 1.5 inch pieces and that's where I'm at. I have no idea what chemicals I'm gonna need or where to get said chemicals.

Also i have a decent chunk of silver that I need to refine, and was going to go the nitric acid route, but have been unlucky in finding a source for the nitric acid.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Welcome to the forum slickwidnick. You have a lot of studying ahead of you. Everything you need to know is here on the forum, but you'll have to do the work by reading, reading, and reading some more.

You have a variety of different types of materials on circuit boards, and they require different processes. Don't break any more up until you understand how to cherry pick them for the best marts to process, and sell the rest.

I usually recommend my Tips for Navigating and Posting on the Forum thread to new members, but we aware that our recent software changeover has made some of the posts in that thread outdated. But most of it has been updated, so I hope it will still help.

Dave

 

[slickwidnick]

Thanks. Yeah I started to look around for info, but I've got no clue even what to look for, let alone where to find it. Any tips on what I should be sticking in the search bar and what to look for?

 

[Elemental]

You'll probably get this recommendation soon enough, but put the material aside for a bit and give C.M. Hoke's "Refining Precious Metal Wastes" a read first and foremost. Take notes when you come to the sections regarding the gold and silver refining you want to do. That single book should give you a good foundation to begin asking questions when it comes time to process your materials. Screen Readable Copy of Hoke's Book

If you are in the United States, I would recommend Duba Diesel for 70% Nitric Acid DudaDiesel - Biodiesel, Chemical & Solar Supplies, Alternative Energy Store, that's one of the cheapest ones I've found. I wouldn't purchase anything though until going through Hoke's book and having a plan for processing. We're not baking a cake here, so you'll need to figure out parts of the recipe yourself, depending on how you want to recover your precious metals. You'll also want to address safety as well, most of these procedures are dangerous/deadly if you don't take proper precautions.

Good Luck, read Hoke, poke around the forum, and then start to ask questions.

Elemental

 

[nickvc]

Not to rain on your parade but unless you have a seriously large amount of old cell phones you will struggle to even see any gold for your effort, e scrap generally is not that high in values that a home refiner can recover and refine, two different arts you will need to master, the former, recovery, by far the hardest.
Most members cherry pick the scrap they refine for that very reason, I’m not saying you can’t get gold from your phones but pointing out it may well be a lot of learning and effort for very little return in terms of gold.

 

[slickwidnick]

This isnt all that I have, but i think it's most of my cell phone and tablet scrap, all the circuit boards have been separated from the housings in this bag. And thanks for the guidance to that book and the advice for where to start. I'll do my best to educate myself before attempting anything.