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kurtak
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icejj - what kind of material did you process to get that recovery (karat scrap - gold filled - gold plated - ceramic ICs & CPUs - epoxy IC chips - whole circuit boards - if CBs HIGH grade only or run of the mill CBs from consumer E-waste)
I ask because we are having a discussion in this thread ------------
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threa...ds-per-ton-of-boards.34796/page-2#post-375182
& the question in this thread is --- what is the potential for recovery from whole run of the mill CBs as a "hobby" refiner
& in that thread your recovery here (this thread) came up wondering what kind of material you processed to get such a nice recovery in 3 years
Kurt
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WOW, that's great work! The really good news for you is the appreciation of gold over that period has been very significant vs. a long dry spell where it was basically flat for a 6 years. I have enough material to process that would yield that and then some, but as you say, getting to where I can do it efficiently and safely has been a long road. I am very close now...
The vast majority of the material was gold filled scrap. I'd say about 85% of the total amount of material was gold filled. The other roughly 15% was mainly gold fingers and ceramic processors from circuit boards, and a very small amount was karat gold. For the record, and possible discussion points of how much one can yield per year as a hobbyist, the first year of the 3 years did not yield much (roughly only 40 grams) as I only processed gold fingers and ceramic processors during the first year. The vast majority of the yield was done in the last 2 years of the total 3 years, pretty much when I started processing gold filled material. Keep in mind that although I did try circuit boards, and was not successful, none of the yield presented in my post was from processing whole circuit boards.
Thanks! Sounds like you got some good material waiting to be processed. What type of material will you be processing? Please feel free to update your progress when you get around to processing it, since you say you're close, as I'd love to see the outcome.
Yes, I've been saying for the longest that I'm glad that gold has been doing well over the last few years! So well that I'm on the fence about if I should sell or keep stacking... Decisions decisions!
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Most of my material is boards from obsolete test equipment and electronic components of the 60s and 70's. I probably have several tons of boards from top of the line RF/Audio/Microwave testing gear from the 60's and 70's. Not to mention acres of IC's and transistors from that era. I did 6 ounces last year without a noticeable dent in the overall stockpile. There are a couple pieces of test gear I have that yield an unbelievable amount of gold from a single piece, but of course gold at $35 an ounce was nothing for companies that were making precision electronics that were selling for the price of an automobile and way more to the government/defense/communications and aerospace industries.
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I have sold my gold to pay for my lab, chemicals, and obtaining more scrap to process. It is always hard to know what gold will do. One could argue that since the end of Bretton Woods in 1971, things have basically trended up. I have reason to believe we'll hit a peak relatively soon and I also believe a day will come in the not so distant future where it's possible it may actually decline in demand and value. Of course, this is just my speculative opinion. On the other hand, there is the whole thing with BRICS gold backed currency which may account for the spike we've seen recently and could also make my beliefs null and void. I do know that the spike we're seeing of late is unusually steep and I aim to take advantage of it before it trends the other way.
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Totally right. Improving processing times and efficiency are a must if we're ever going to be able to flourish.
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i believe that due to the end of bretton woods, gold/silver/commodities have not trended up. the value of the dollar has trended down. 100 years ago, i could walk into any restaurant, and buy a nice meal for an ounce of silver. today, i can still buy that same meal, with an ounce of silver. which tells me, that it's not the value of the commodities that is going up, it is the value of the dollar that is going down. and as soon as the BRICS nations get their currency set up, and the us dollar is no longer required in the global trade of petroleum, you're going to see the value of the us dollar go down, A LOT. especially when all of these little nations like belize, panama, and guam start jumping ship from using our dollar as their own currency. i encourage everyone to stay in gold and silver. it's the only way not to be shadow-taxed by the 24/7 over-printing of our dollar.
Agreed. Every time I sold a piece of gold I reinvested a part of it in new equipment. Most to help improve my prep time, but very often in better quality equipment to speed up processing times. It never hurts to have a few spare pieces of some stuff on hand.
