Non-Chemical gold from boards

[EVO-AU]

To all and sundry:

This has probably been done by someone, but it worked for me so here goes. About 11 years back I picked up Megans' book on recycling and with it came the bit about reclaiming gold from china, etc. Well, my gold standard depleted so I thought just maybe the same trick would work on 'phone boards.

2:1 - water/nitric - simmer lightly over spirit lamp ( easier and cheaper than my tirrill ) for about five minutes. Voila - the gold was floating to the surface. Nothing else was in the still nice clear solution. Gotta run, I'll check out the results tomorrow, and go from there. Phill

 

[Despotic]

A few of my phone (cell) boards have sticker resin on them.
should the boards be incinerated first?
Or, would the sticky stuff go neatly into solution?

-Craig

 

[nicknitro]

Hi all,

Welcome to the forum.

If phone boards refers to cell phone boards, I would probably recommend using HCL + Peroxide to remove the foils from the boards. Also I would try to remove as many other chips and what-nots from the boards before trying to remove the foils. The less base metals in the process the better. You might try a toaster oven to melt the solder and tapping the boards to remove chips, transistors, capacitors, etc.

If you are trying to process cell phone boards with nitric, you will find as I did, it can make a lot of undesireable chemicals such as metastannic acid from the tin in the solder, which is very gellish and makes filtering the foils from the solution next to impossible. The aluminum from capacitors an heat sinks will gum up the works as well.

If you meant some other non-populated board I apologize, however I don't really see why they would just have a blank gold plated board except maybe a seperate key pad board, which I have seen in cell phones occasionaly.

I deffinitely vote nay on incineration of any boards as this will produce a lot of nasty fumes, noone will appreciate, and the plastics will likely leave an oily residue which would less than desirable as well.

Good Luck Guys,
Nick

 

[nicknitro]

P.S

Despotic, I would try some lye on the depopulated boards with the sticker resin on them.

It should dissolve the resin, and as a side effect it might also remove the solder mask from the board the green coating over the board. You never now, it might be lightly plated under the mask. I have seen it on other types of boards for shielding purposes, and it couldn't hurt, unless you get some in the eye.

Nick

 

[EVO-AU]

To one and all: I should have been more explicit. These are from desk type consoles with hand- set and cords atached. A friend, knowing my propensity for goofing off asked me if I wanted some desk style phones from an old factory they were demolishing. Sure, why not. I arrived in my very old Buick and wound up making four trips because there were over two-hundred of these things. Never know. Spare time only. I am using A/R after removal from the boards for cleanup and so far my little beads of almost finished gold are mounting up. But it is spare time only, so some of those phones may be years before I get to them. Too many other things in the fire, so to speak. One of the forum members sent me a sample of hydrzune to play with. Mike at GMW says it is the best leaching agent around. Well, we shall see. Peace gentlemen and have funl. PHill

 

[Despotic]

One of the forum members sent me a sample of hydrzune to play with. Mike at GMW says it is the best leaching agent around

Do you mean hydrazine?
I'm not trying to correct you, just trying to find info on the process your speaking of.

-Craig

 

[EVO-AU]

Craig: My spelling is getting worse as my fingers get faster. Yes, you are right - it is hydrazine. Phill