cellphone boards

[arthur kierski]

i have over a thousand kilos of cellphone boards on which i extracted gold ,pd and some ag-----the boards are barren and i tried to sell them -----no one was interested-----so i decided to extract the material that looks like solder and is in the boards holes ---about 30holes filled with this material(solder?) per board-------i need to know if any member of our forum did or thought about this- i think (hope) that this solder mentioned here have silver? i will begin my experiments on monday,i would like some(information) help in these matters-------
as mentioned in some articles there is 0,034gold per cellboard,0,015pd and 0,35 ag ----with all my work, i did not find these quantity of silver in the boards-----i do hope they are in the holes filled with solder

thanks all for reading this thread ,and all information is welcome
Arthur Kierski

 

[qst42know]

It might be useful to know what process were these boards subjected to already.

Is the material in the holes cemented to the exposed base metal?

If you used AR and have chlorides, have you tried hot thiosulfate?

 

[Geo]

in my experience i believe it is safe to assume that there is a % of silver in all solder used in electronics,some more than others.as to whether you still have silver on these boards depends on what you did to them already as qst42know has ask you about.if you used straight diluted nitric acid,well probably not.if theres solder left on the board theres a good chance theres still silver there.

 

[arthur kierski]

qst,geo--- i scrapped the boards from its components----the barren boards still plated with gold, and with the small holes containing solder were stripped with cianide(gold stripper)----the gold yeald was 3.5 ounces from the boards----the components were treated by the usual methods(incineration etc) and the gold and pd yeald was much higher
thanks
Arthur

ps:the solder in the boards holes were no dealt with(they are all there)
regards

Arthur

 

[qst42know]

I never had to deal with a 1000 kilos of anything, hopefully someone can advise you whether this is a worth while venture or not.

 

[samuel-a]

Hi Arthur

the components were treated by the usual methods(incineration etc)

It sound like you have incineration and milling capabilities.
why not just throw the whole boards in to the furnace and get on with it?

 

[arthur kierski]

Samuel, i developed a method for extracting pms from cellphones---after scrapping the cells,i separate all the chips ,incinerate them and mill them----all the gold components that i separate from the chips ,and the barren boards, are deplated with gold stripp-----the only elements that i incinerate are the chips(a method very similar to yours and partnors)------because the rigidity of the laws(polution) here and the price for a big furnace ---the method adopted by me seems quite cheap and sucessful and does not give problems with the polution autorities----
i asked the question about the holes with solder(silver?) because i was offered almost nothing for the barren boards with the solder and copper under the green mask----

 

[qst42know]

How much copper is in a cell phone?

I don't know for certain, but "almost nothing" may be preferred over paying for disposal.

 

[arthur kierski]

i know that there is not much copper inside cellphone boards,but the reports says that there is 10 to 14% of copper by weight------i am not going after the copper------nor after the silver , unless it has more then 1%by weight ------ that is 10kilos----

 

[qst42know]

For a possible 10 kilos of silver it sounds worth experimenting with for a while.