First time processing mmx black fibre

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These fetch 70-75 euro for kilogram. While I can not offer any numbers I can say that yield over 3g is pretty reasonable expectation. I used to cut them in 4 pieces with tin snips as it allowed me to add them slowly one piece by another to hot AR. Never do many at the same time they foam like crazy.
I have lost email with details where I was processing small batch I have just few pictures left.
 

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My final tally is in, I didn't recover a lot gold in the second leach, only a tenth of a gram. I also found some silver.

One kilo, 53 CPU:s with s-code SL27J gave 3.4g gold and about 1g of silver. The lids gave 260 grams of copper.

There can be some more gold hold up in filters and the stock pot and I probably lost some more silver as I didn't target that specifically. The silver I found was used in a thermal bond between the chip and the thermal lid. I had to incinerate the small white squares to get to the silver. A lot of work for a gram of silver. :D

The silver followed the lids when I desoldered them. I found very little gold in the solder of the lids and I will not mess with that again, it was too little gold, barely detectable, so probably only milligrams of it.

Göran
 
Back in days I have posted how to process covar pins with pictures and I think I have video on youtube: Dissolving Kovar. They readily dissolve (those black MMX CPUs) in HNO3 and H2SO4, while adding acids slowly at high heat. Goran is correct that they foam like crazy, so one should be very careful. Once Ni, Fe and Cu dissolved and all pins are afloat, it is very nice and easy to dissolve remaining gold in AR.
 
I've always removed the epoxy chip first and then a HCl bath without heat. The reaction of the solder dissolving gets pretty warm on it's own. Decant and rinse and then straight to AR. I've never had more problems with this than any other processor.
 
How black fibre Celerons, very much similar in external apperance to "proper" black fibre MMX compare in terms of yield?
 
ChemGeek said:
How black fibre Celerons, very much similar in external apperance to "proper" black fibre MMX compare in terms of yield?
Almost impossible to say but probably similar yields. To get a proper yield you have to look at the S-code and not if it is an MMX or a celeron. Different size of die, manufacturing date and so on will all affect the amount of gold in a CPU. To get a specific yield you need to sort your CPU:s in a lot of different models.

Since all are made basically the same way I don't see any reason of splitting it up in several different batches. But take a lot of notes of yields and over time your data will tell you the mean value as well as the spread between lots. The bigger the lots the lower the variation between lots, it all evens out in the end.

Göran
 
@g_axelsson,
Thanks for your comment. Out of lack of any better knowledge I will have to risk following deal:
One guy offers me 3kg of black fibre Celerons, very similar in appearance to MMX Pentiums.
He wants 5 grams of 24ct Au in exchange. There is a chance to get back 9-10g Au out of his processors.
So it looks sound at first glance.
Lets hope that these Celerons are comparable in yields to MMX. They are cheap brand, I know.
 
archeonist said:
Hmm.., now this is strange, why do most of my pins have a copperish color? I boiled in HCl for a few hours, only a few pins had come off. Is it ok to go to AR with the pins?
Also the top epoxy layer is coming off. Revealing copper plating underneath, that I did not want to happen.. more basemetal will go in solution..

In the picture the cpu are soaked in fresh tap water.

hi mate,

i've processed these many times and you can put them in AR (after your HCL washing) but don't heat directly ,
put them in AR (add AR slowly according to your rythm and follow the reaction which is happening,it's very important) till level of AR is satisfactory for you , let stand there for a while ,when cold and once you don't see any reaction happening start adding heat slowly , then walaaa,

after that denox will take maybe one day or bit less for your batch on the photo, then the next day you can add 3 or 4 times or even bit more it's volume of water,use very hot water ( precipitation loves heat) let the silver chloride settle then add sodium bisulphite or cement it or whatever precipitating method you like,then you can get your gold powder ,

i advice you to do 4 or 5 batch ,like on your photo at the same time , because according to your photo , the amount of gold recovered will be little bit "petit" :) :) ( it's not to make you give up on your task but to push you make your task better ) ,so if you have 4 or 5 batch like this , you are going to be happy :) ;
 
charlie2 said:
archeonist said:
Hmm.., now this is strange, why do most of my pins have a copperish color? I boiled in HCl for a few hours, only a few pins had come off. Is it ok to go to AR with the pins?
Also the top epoxy layer is coming off. Revealing copper plating underneath, that I did not want to happen.. more basemetal will go in solution..

In the picture the cpu are soaked in fresh tap water.

hi mate,

i've processed these many times and you can put them in AR (after your HCL washing) but don't heat directly ,
put them in AR (add AR slowly according to your rythm and follow the reaction which is happening,it's very important) till level of AR is satisfactory for you , let stand there for a while ,when cold and once you don't see any reaction happening start adding heat slowly , then walaaa,

after that denox will take maybe one day or bit less for your batch on the photo, then the next day you can add 3 or 4 times or even bit more it's volume of water,use very hot water ( precipitation loves heat) let the silver chloride settle then add sodium bisulphite or cement it or whatever precipitating method you like,then you can get your gold powder ,

i advice you to do 4 or 5 batch ,like on your photo at the same time , because according to your photo , the amount of gold recovered will be little bit "petit" :) :) ( it's not to make you give up on your task but to push you make your task better ) ,so if you have 4 or 5 batch like this , you are going to be happy :) ;

Charlie. I understand the theory behind doing things this way however that's a process that can be improved upon a great deal. It doesn't work too well if you have a decent sized batch because it takes too long.

If you a decent batch (i.e. You have more than 4 or 5) you can premix AR and heat it prior to adding the carcasses. The amount of chips you can add at any one time is determined by the foaming. Start with one, then if it doesn't react too vigorously add another and so on until you get to a good stable fast dissolve. Then when one load is completed, add more processors to the same solution as above and repeat. That way you load your solution and use it more efficiently.

What method of denox do you use since a solution like this can be denoxxed in under an hour- faster if you know your Nitric and can judge the amounts you've added and correspondingly used?
 
Be aware, I'm only guessing so there i no guarantee that I'm right. Different die sizes affects the length of any bond wires and also the amount of gold in each CPU. The only way to be reasonable sure is to take a representative sample of a batch and making an assay.

Statistics and assays are your best friends, it's a numbers game.

Göran
 
Hi
There are some electronic components on black cpus. Are they MLCC caps?
Thanks

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