Cpu gold extraction methodology

[Taleeho]

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

Is the filtration problem amenable to vacuum filtration or small filter press?

 

[Slochteren]

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.

Is the filtration problem amenable to vacuum filtration or small filter press?

Why do you want to mill them, there is no gold inside the ceramic only the legs and around the dye.

https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/is-there-gold-in-left-over-486-cpu-ceramic.27905/post-294906

Why create a mess? Experienced users here told you just to break them in a few pieces and then process them.

 

[kurtak]

Is the filtration problem amenable to vacuum filtration or small filter press?

First of all - you NEVER want to crush ceramic to a fine powder if you intend to leach the fine powder as I have already explained the fine ceramic becomes an ultra fine "clay" like mud which is next to impossible (if not impossible to wash/filter out all of the leach solution --- which means you loose values because values that are dissolved in the solution remain tied up in the ceramic mud that is impossible to get washed/filtered out of that mud

And NO - trying to wash/filter that mud with vacuum or pressure WILL NOT help & that is because putting it under vacuum or pressure only causes the "clay" like mud to "pack" so tight it will completely shut down the ability of the solution to go through the clay mud --- it makes filtering/washing even more difficult then trying to gravity filter - which is it self next to impossible

If you have already crushed/ground the ceramic to "fine" powder & then leached it the ONLY way to really effectively wash/filter the solution out of the "clay" like mud is to add a HUGE amount of "filtering aid" to the clay like mud

Filtering aid is when you mix something of larger particle size in with the "fine" powder (&/or mud) so that what you are trying to filter/wash becomes more porous allowing the solution & wash water to pass through what you are trying the filter/wash --- & the filter aid needs to be acid resistant

Something like silica sand that is around 40 mesh "& larger" in particle size

In other words sand that has had everything "smaller" then 40 mesh washed out of the sand

The filter aid sand should be made up of particle size no smaller then 40 mesh & no larger then 20 mesh (20 mesh is "about" the size of window screen)

You want MORE 40 mesh size particles in your filter aid then 40 mesh particle size because if the filter aid is to course the fine & ultra fine particle will still go through the filter aid particles defeating the purpose of filtering out the fine & ultra fine particles

You then want to mix VERY WELL - LOTS of the filter aid in with your fine/ultra fine mud - like 5 - 6 times filter aid to fine/ultra fine

In other words - you want to mix the filter aid into the mud along with your leach solution

Once you have the solution/mud/filter aid all mixed up you can run that through an actual filtering set up (& yes here you can now use vacuum or pressure)

Setting up the actual filter - start with regular filter paper at the bottom - then a courser filter on top of that - I use these ---------

https://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/mi...1456?msockid=07f270b150b660d830286472519b61b7

Then on top of that you put an inch or 2 of regular fiber glass house insulation (depending on the amount of solution/mud/filter aid you will be filtering) If you filter with vacuum or pressure the insulation will mash down to 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch

Then on top of the fiber glass insulation you want to put another inch or two of just the filter aid sand

This will speed up the filtering/washing of fine/ultra fine ceramic mud BY A LOT & as well filter out the VAST majority of the fine/ultra fine mud

BUT - you do NOT need to go through this nightmare in the first place because you do NOT need to crush/grind ceramic CPUs &/or ceramic IC chips to leach the gold out of then

ALL you have to do to leach the gold out of CPUs is to break them enough so that the leach solution (acid) can get to the cavity in the CPU to dissolve the gold bond wires &/or any gold braze under the silicon chip

If they are CPUs with no cavity (no lid) they can go direct to AR without needing to break them - & like wise you do NOT need to break ceramic IC chips - they can go direct to AR as long as the lid on the ICs are metal lids

Example; - in the picture is a little over 2 kilos of ceramic IC chips - they went direct to AR without breaking them

52.8 grams of gold was recovered

Kurt

 

[Alondro]

Why do you want to mill them, there is no gold inside the ceramic only the legs and around the dye.

https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/is-there-gold-in-left-over-486-cpu-ceramic.27905/post-294906

Why create a mess? Experienced users here told you just to break them in a few pieces and then process them.

The silicon chip in the old ceramics has a fair amount of PMs as well. I built my furnace for smelting, and that's what the grinding is for. I treat it like it's hard rock ore.

 

[kurtak]

The silicon chip in the old ceramics has a fair amount of PMs as well. I built my furnace for smelting, and that's what the grinding is for. I treat it like it's hard rock ore.

To the best of my knowledge there are NO PMs in the silicon dies

Rather the PMs related to the silicon dies is found on the surface of the die as gold braze that brazes the bond wires to the edge of the die

Therefore once again there is no need for crushing/grinding the dies to fine powder as the gold braze will dissolve off the surface of the dies when you leach the ceramic ICs &/or ceramic CPUs with AR as whole &/or large broken pieces of ceramic ICs or CPUs

The same is true with the silicon dies found in epoxy ICs - there is gold braze on the edges of the silicon dies so you can leach the dies with AR to recover that gold but you certainly don't need to crush/grand the dies to fine powder to recover that gold

Kurt