Gold inside chips (black, flatpacks - not CPU)

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Way to think outside the box! I think there's a way to get the pm's, but meanwhile, you're fishing for dinner, since there is no sure path yet.

Till then, get what pays, and tight lines!
 
If there are 2g Au and 20g Ag per kg, I believe the last words hasn't been spoken regarding profitibility.

I need to accumulate more of it, since I have only a few hundred gramms, but those are my thoughts and I would likely try them, once I have enough:

1l 25%~7M HCl would theoretically dissolve about 420g Sn or 700g Pb. We will need more in practice due to acceptible speed of reaction and to prevent too fast degradation of SnCl2.

Ag, Cu and Au will be left over. Filter.

Any Pb (if any) can be precipitated by small portions of H2SO4 to insoluble PbSO4 until no more reaction occurs. Filter.

The remaining SnCl2 solution goes to a tin electrowinning cell or can be precipitated as sulfide and roasted (at least if you need a lot of SO2). Also it will reduce silver salts to metal, but if this can be useful for reducing AgCl from other sources, I am still trying to find informations about. Maybe SnCl2 could be processed hot, - haven't found much about it.

Problems: Tin++ is a b.... Too much HCl it degrades, too little HCl it degrades, contact with oxygen it degrades....and forms a dozen or more different tin compounds, each having different stages and there is not enough information about when, why and what exactly.

It sounds easy, but everyone having only a little experience would know, this is a lot of work and time. A lot of possible problems and if anything fails, a lot of waste.

The idea isn't new, there are some threads about making a dissolved solder mess and I think all of them are still left open end.

But Au for 60$ plus 7$ Ag at today's prices! It might make sense to use 3l HCl, at least for those, who buy it for cheap. The spot of 99,9% tin isn't that bad either (maybe 10$). The nice lures could then be made from cheap lead instead.
 
Problem with lead lures is that they darken within days. Tin stay shiny and that is why I use it in alloy for those lures. It make no sense for me to even attempt recovery as I pay over 10 euro for 1l of 15% strong HCl. If I am going to spend countless of hours and 20-30 euro to get 60 back I would rather make lures and get back more and faster.
I had only about 2 kilograms of solder and that is not amount I would consider sending to some refiner.
 
hi guys :D

i see a lot of your post is very educative. :idea:
for the gold recovery ..
why not just shred into pieces very thin and then filter with a bowl of water like it was before..

like coffee grinder maybe or Better machine

or if i have to absolotely burn them and have the ash after ?

some advice on this ?

:roll:
 
Alegiance said:
hi guys :D

i see a lot of your post is very educative. :idea:
for the gold recovery ..
why not just shred into pieces very thin and then filter with a bowl of water like it was before..

like coffee grinder maybe or Better machine

or if i have to absolotely burn them and have the ash after ?

some advice on this ?

:roll:
Click to expand...

That was discussed many times over.
If you shred and grind them in powder most of gold wires get smashed to dust and end beaten or smeared on top of base metal pins and pieces from inside of IC chips. If incinerated then ash is easier to wash out and there will be just small amount of gold attached to tip of base metal pin..
 
jason_recliner said:
Those are some pretty lures, Pat!

The irony here is that we all strive to keep our waste metals from ending up in the ocean. :lol:
Click to expand...

I had a good laugh on this, nearly choked on my coffee. You are correct but I am sure recreational fishing will not make any measurable impact on ocean pollution. Plastic is what is killing ocean life and there is not much we can do. It make me sad when I see what end up washed on shore, I once found few cell phones. Amount of garbage I have seen when I used my metal detector on beach is unbelievable.
I would dare to say that all recreational fishing gear lost in last 200 years and perhaps with next 200 years combined did less damage than Tepco did in a month. Not to mention that their disaster is spewing pure poison into the pacific for the last 48 months.
Also there are countless magma eruptions on ocean floor going on pretty much constantly, introducing tons of metal in the water.
 
i have QUestion !

is there gold in every chip who are not bga chips ?

because every time i cut one in half i only see white and red color :oops:

i have collected maybe 2 pound of mixed Ic chips in few weeks and i have some cpu
pentium pro look very nice !
 
Alegiance said:
i have QUestion !

is there gold in every chip who are not bga chips ?

because every time i cut one in half i only see white and red color :oops:

i have collected maybe 2 pound of mixed Ic chips in few weeks and i have some cpu
pentium pro look very nice !
Click to expand...

There most likely is, with exception of eprom like type IC they do contain very little. Gold is so tiny wire you will have problem to see it with eyes, take some magnifier and you will see it better.
 
I made the experience over the gold content in Intel chips (bridges, very old versions without textolite substrate) and full similar in form of mix chips from other manufacturers (Sony, Sega, Adaptec, WDC and other). The gold content in the Intel chips is several times larger. Some chips have little or no gold. For example Sega chips contain aluminum wire.
 
I bend the green rim with pliers. Some are using heat, which has the advantage that you get the gold plated areas beneath to cling to the black top.
 
Alegiance said:
Do you have special tips for remove that bga chips ?

heat the chip glue a little bit ?

hammer ?

:idea:
Click to expand...

2cm wood chisel, then use the same chisel to scrape the solder balls off the bottom but don't discard them.
 
and can i just use the chisel alone without hammer to remove this chips ?

because i cannot make so much noise in my appartement.

:mrgreen:
 
Alegiance said:
because i cannot make so much noise in my appartement.

:mrgreen:
Click to expand...

If you live in an apartment you CAN NOT DO THIS :!: PERIOD :!: :!: :!:

The chemicals used to extract/recover the gold &/or refine the gold once it has been recovered are extremely TOXIC & CORROSIVE --- you will end up POISONING yourself & the other people that live in the apartment building & anything made of metal in the apartment will corrode (rust) & the waste chemicals (when done recovering the gold) "can not" just be dumped down the drain

You need to find a different hobby :!: :!: :!:

Kurt
 
Also chiseling of IC from board will set out dust which is not very good addition to your apartment. Some of the dust may contain hazardous materials.
 
Alegiance said:
and can i just use the chisel alone without hammer to remove this chips ?

because i cannot make so much noise in my appartement.

:mrgreen:
Click to expand...

I use a thin metallic awl.... a couple taps with a hammer is usually enough to get it to seperate from the board enough to pry it appart.

I did not see where you mentioned anything about the chemical aspect of refining the gold, but thak is indeed a GIANT no-no to do in the house. But even the aspect of the physical seperation would be inadvisable to do in the hosue. Here are a list of my safty concerns concerning the seperation and grinding.

Seperation
fiberglass - fine particles from tearing the bottom away from the top deffinitly go airborne.
solder balls - aside from containing a small bit of lead, they tend to scatter. they will get all over, so make sure you can clean up the area

Grinding (if you chose to go this route)
ultra fine particulate - the ash from burning/grinding is extreamly fine... it passes through my finest sieves, so it is at maximum 100um. you need to grind the material very fine to release all the gold wire.
silcon fragments - if you grind, the silicon chips will fragment in to tiny shards... look up silisosis (very similar to the effects of asbestos)
gold fines - if you grind up the chip to a powder, you will also grind up the wires very fine too... you have to have a way of recovering this, and its not easy. I dare say that the majority share of gold will end up like this if you grind.

In short, you have to make sure you have very good ventilation and/or a respirator. Outside in a garage would be a good place to do this. I also think it would be a very good idea to have a good set of goggles to keep thd fine dust our of your eyes too....I have started to use one becasue I can feel the grit in my eyes after dealing with dust.
 
hi i just collect the chips for a year or 2 and i will find someone to recover the gold
nothing toxic in there i hope.. lol

hehe

:oops:
 
solar_plasma said:
To avoid any dust, you can do this under water. I tried this for mlcc's.
Click to expand...

Neat.

I usually do it outside when weather is nice and with heat gun. 10-20 seconds of direct hot air flow on IC and you can pick it up with needle nose pliers. One two taps over separate container to remove solder while it is still soft-melted.
I mostly use carpenter spatula, or kitchen cake spatula, something like this: http://goo.gl/4FJbnl
to scrape solder from board and lift IC all while it is still hot.
 

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