Cpu gold extraction methodology

[aussie_noob]

I've seen a bunch of people extract gold from old cpus by just crushing the whole cpu and then extract gold. Ummmm, isn't this really bad? Wouldn't it make more sense to break them open, scrape out / cut out the golden stuff, and refine that. Then crush and refine the leftovers. This way the bulk of the cpu wouldn't interfere with the high yielding sections of the cpu. Am I an idiot? (Probably). Are all these guys doing it wrong?


2nd question:
With ball milling of cpus, do you need a really big mill?

Would a small thing that sits on a desk work?
Example link

Thanks heaps, excited to try some cpu stuff.

 

[Martijn]

Then crush and refine the leftovers.

You basically answered your own question here.

Why treat the leftovers separate if you get the goodies of first? Why get the goodies of first if there is still something left worth going after by a method that will catch the goodies as wel? Double work.

No need to crush the ceramics if there is no gold in them but only on them. Depends on the type.

And the labor of scraping and cutting out buckets full of CPU's by hand makes no sense. Time vs profit.

 

[Martijn]

2nd question:
With ball milling of cpus, do you need a really big mill?

Would a small thing that sits on a desk work?

Your lot size matters. Buckets vs truckloads.
If the piece fits, the machine is good.
The amount you want to process matters.
Edited for spelling.

 

[aussie_noob]

Your lot size matters. Buckets vs truckloads.
If the piece fits, the machine is good.
The amount you want to process matters.
Edited for spelling.

Ahhh, so just double checking, these tiny cheap milling machines that sit on a desk will properly crush, its just that they only do a small quantity at a time?

 

[anachronism]

Funnily enough I can help here. A few years back friend of mine came to me with exactly the same question as you raised. I had 500Kg of "spent" ceramics lying around. By spent I mean those that had been processed in AR having been broken up with a hammer into a few pieces to expose the core.

He was adamant that I must have left in his words "a pile of gold" by not breaking up the chips completely so he offered to take them away and invest in a mill to do exactly that.

He was right in one sense. There was gold there, in fact a whole 100g of gold. The issue was that it took him 8 weeks work, many thousands of pounds worth of equipment and hundreds of litres of acids in order to get there.

If you work out that this equates to 0.2g per Kg in addition to a recovered yield of 6.7g per Kg then you've got a total yield of 6.9g of which the 0.2g was 2.89%

That last 2.89% took far too much time and resource to recover and was in real terms a cost. Most ofr the time it simply isn't worth your time to chase the last little bit.

I hope that provides some useful context.

Jon

 

[Shark]

If you’re running as a hobby refiner it equates to nothing left to chase. If, as in Jon’s case, you have a ton or so, it just isn’t cost effective. I’m with the hammer user crowd, break it up small and run them hot and hard. Take what it gives, within reason, and move on to the next batch.

 

[anachronism]

The hammer user crowd. I like that.

 

[aussie_noob]

Funnily enough I can help here. A few years back friend of mine came to me with exactly the same question as you raised. I had 500Kg of "spent" ceramics lying around. By spent I mean those that had been processed in AR having been broken up with a hammer into a few pieces to expose the core.

He was adamant that I must have left in his words "a pile of gold" by not breaking up the chips completely so he offered to take them away and invest in a mill to do exactly that.

He was right in one sense. There was gold there, in fact a whole 100g of gold. The issue was that it took him 8 weeks work, many thousands of pounds worth of equipment and hundreds of litres of acids in order to get there.

If you work out that this equates to 0.2g per Kg in addition to a recovered yield of 6.7g per Kg then you've got a total yield of 6.9g of which the 0.2g was 2.89%

That last 2.89% took far too much time and resource to recover and was in real terms a cost. Most ofr the time it simply isn't worth your time to chase the last little bit.

I hope that provides some useful context.

Jon

Was hoping, but not expecting, exactly this answer!

 

[aussie_noob]

Hmmmm, guess i'll hammer and get most of the gold and keep the leftovers in a stockpile. Maybe a forum member would like them?

 

[Taleeho]

I've seen a bunch of people extract gold from old cpus by just crushing the whole cpu and then extract gold. Ummmm, isn't this really bad? Wouldn't it make more sense to break them open, scrape out / cut out the golden stuff, and refine that. Then crush and refine the leftovers. This way the bulk of the cpu wouldn't interfere with the high yielding sections of the cpu. Am I an idiot? (Probably). Are all these guys doing it wrong?


2nd question:
With ball milling of cpus, do you need a really big mill?

Would a small thing that sits on a desk work?
Example link

Thanks heaps, excited to try some cpu stuff.

Does this discussion apply to ceramics only? What about Intels with PGA, LGA,or BGA configurations or AMD's with pins sticking up?

 

[Yggdrasil]

Does this discussion apply to ceramics only? What about Intels with PGA, LGA,or BGA configurations or AMD's with pins sticking up?

The crushing is a typical ceramic thing .
Other types of scrap may or may not benefit from crushing.

 

[kurtak]

2nd question:
With ball milling of cpus, do you need a really big mill?

Would a small thing that sits on a desk work?
Example link

No - at least not effectively for milling ceramic

Ceramic is VERY HARD & with that small mill you can't put balls big enough & heavy enough in it to be "effective" at "crushing" ceramic (to fine powder)

To have any real effect on the ceramic in that mill the ceramic would have to first be broken down to at least 1/4 inch size pieces (so you are back to the break them with a hammer) & even then it would likely take 2 - 3 days running in the mill to mill the ceramic to powder (100 mesh or finer)

That mill will have NO effect on "whole" (or even large pieces) of ceramic

To effectively mill ceramic to powder you need a mill that is big enough to hold a "load" of balls made up of balls ranging in size of 1 inch balls 1 1/4 inch balls 1 1/2 inch balls & 2 inch balls

The 1 1/2 inch balls & 2 inch balls have the heavy weight to "break" the ceramic while the 1 inch balls 1 1/4 inch balls work at crushing/grinding the ceramic (as the ceramic mills smaller & smaller in size)

The mill needs to carry out 2 functions

1) the balls first need to lift to the top of the mill so they "drop" down on the material being milled so that the balls work at "breaking" the material

2) at the same time some of the balls need to stay in the bottom of mill with a spinning action so that they effect a grinding/crushing action

That mill (your link) is just what it says - a "lab" mill

It is used for milling VERY small samples of ore for doing fire assays

Ore mills MUCH easier then ceramic

Even then the ore is first broken down to around 1/4 inch minus before putting it in that mill to then mill it to at least 100 minus mesh (or finer) for doing their fire assays

Not say that mill won't work - just that it will not be very effective at doing it --- don't waste your money

Kurt

 

[kurtak]

Funnily enough I can help here. A few years back friend of mine came to me with exactly the same question as you raised. I had 500Kg of "spent" ceramics lying around. By spent I mean those that had been processed in AR having been broken up with a hammer into a few pieces to expose the core.

He was adamant that I must have left in his words "a pile of gold" by not breaking up the chips completely so he offered to take them away and invest in a mill to do exactly that.

He was right in one sense. There was gold there, in fact a whole 100g of gold. The issue was that it took him 8 weeks work, many thousands of pounds worth of equipment and hundreds of litres of acids in order to get there.

If you work out that this equates to 0.2g per Kg in addition to a recovered yield of 6.7g per Kg then you've got a total yield of 6.9g of which the 0.2g was 2.89%

That last 2.89% took far too much time and resource to recover and was in real terms a cost. Most ofr the time it simply isn't worth your time to chase the last little bit.

I hope that provides some useful context.

Jon

What Jon said

& just to add to that - trying to leach fine milled ceramic is a BIG MASTAKE !!!!!!!!

Why ?

Because the acid leach breaks the fine ceramic powder down to an ultra fine clay like mud & then trying to wash/filter all of the leach solution out of that clay mud is a NIGHTMARE

Next to impossible (if not impossible) to get all the leach solution out of the mud

Kurt

 

[aussie_noob]

What Jon said

& just to add to that - trying to leach fine milled ceramic is a BIG MASTAKE !!!!!!!!

Why ?

Because the acid leach breaks the fine ceramic powder down to an ultra fine clay like mud & then trying to wash/filter all of the leach solution out of that clay mud is a NIGHTMARE

Next to impossible (if not impossible) to get all the leach solution out of the mud

Kurt

So what are the options?
1. Fine powder + cyanide leaching for industrial scale?
2. Hammer for hobbyist
3. Hammer + partial crushing by ball mill then acid leach for semi pro?

Say 100g gold in cpus / ics is sitting there, thousands of dollars budget. How do you get the gold?

 

[Yggdrasil]

So what are the options?
1. Fine powder + cyanide leaching for industrial scale?
2. Hammer for hobbyist
3. Hammer + partial crushing by ball mill then acid leach for semi pro?

Say 100g gold in cpus / ics is sitting there, thousands of dollars budget. How do you get the gold?

I think Jon and Kurt says is:
Do not make a fine powder out of ut since it is virtually unfilterable.
That goes for any leach.
So coarse particles should be fine even just crushed to a few pieces.
Since the leach will penetrate the gap anyway.

IC's is a different ballgame altogether.

 

[Shark]

So what are the options?
1. Fine powder + cyanide leaching for industrial scale?
2. Hammer for hobbyist
3. Hammer + partial crushing by ball mill then acid leach for semi pro?

Say 100g gold in cpus / ics is sitting there, thousands of dollars budget. How do you get the gold?

The options are, take what you get from the first run of broken ceramics, dispose of the remains, collect your money and start the next batch. Or, spend you profit from the first run and chase the little remaining gold, for a loss of money that wasn’t worth what you spent trying to get it. First choice, make money versus second choice, break even or maybe even loose money for a few grams.

Spending dimes to make dollars or spending dollars to make dimes.

 

[aussie_noob]

I think Jon and Kurt says is:
Do not make a fine powder out of ut since it is virtually unfilterable.
That goes for any leach.
So coarse particles should be fine even just crushed to a few pieces.
Since the leach will penetrate the gap anyway.

IC's is a different ballgame altogether.

Tell me about ICs please. Got a bunch of them. Was planning to ball mill to a fine powder but yeah the fine sludge is an issue.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Tell me about ICs please. Got a bunch of them. Was planning to ball mill to a fine powder but yeah the fine sludge is an issue.

I might have jumped to conclusions here.

Ordinary ICs are pyrolized, incinerated, milled gravity separated, incinerated again.
And then when one is sure it is completely free of Carbon it can be dissolved in AR.

Ceramic ICs would most likely be crushed and leached as ceramic CPUs.

 

[Alondro]

I've tested using my cast iron pipe for pre-crushing larger ceramic pieces. The walls are 1/2 in thick, and can take serious punishment. So, as with my pyrolizing, I can set the pipe in a cast iron frying pan and then dump the ceramics in the pipe. Then use an iron pry bar to just pound away at the ceramics, like it's a butter churn!

Smashes the ceramics up into little bits that a crusher can handle much more easily.

 

[anarxi]

I read that people use a hammer drill.
in impact mode, without rotation.
You just need to select the diameter of the pipe so that it is slightly larger than the diameter of the drill.
And a good monolithic base, for example a piece of rail to which the pipe is welded, vertically.