Gold per ton

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J

Jmell

Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2012
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17
A scrap refiner (that has a very large operation) and that I trust told me today that the average gold per ton in scrat PC boards will be between 2 to 4 oz. per ton. Sounds like a big spread. He says that the boards made in China Is what pushes it to the lower end and the boards made in USA bring it to the high side.

Of course in he recycler refiner area they pull more PM and copper than I do and I only pull pins and fingers. But it does tell you that the thickness that the gold is laid on is getting thinner as gold price golds up.
 
There are no boards Made in USA anymore. Virtually everything is manufactured in China or Asia. And even if something is marked as Made in USA it may only be assembled in states but from Chinese parts.
 
There is no magical yield per ton number because the variables are just too numerous. I was thinking the spread your friend told you wasn't enough. I would think it would be a lot more, perhaps he's selective in the scrap he processes.
If you wanted you could classify PC board scrap into about 100 different catagories, each with it's own unique characteristics, starting on the low end of the scale with consumer electronics built overseas and ending in Military and Aerospace built here in NA.
Refiners couldn't be bothered to classify to this extent so it goes as low, mid and high grade with some blurred lines between.

For some of us on the board as a small scale recovery, the secret is to recognize which boards have the best yields and seek them out.
 
I too have heard that the Chinese have advanced technologically to the extent that they can reliably deposit sufficient gold plating to achieve the goal at one-half the thickness.
 
It was discussed here recently that this is just urban myth spread around by major refineries in order to get feedstock cheaper. It is not colour of board which determine yield or quality. While we agree that plating was little bit thicker on earlier computers and is bit thinner now (hence age not colour as I have seen many colourful but very old boards), most and I repeat most of gold on motherboards is inside chips in form of bonding wires. Here s/n bridge is the best of them but even tiniest of them, - those with 6 legs do have gold inside.
 
Jmell said:
A scrap refiner (that has a very large operation) and that I trust told me today that the average gold per ton in scrat PC boards will be between 2 to 4 oz. per ton. Sounds like a big spread. He says that the boards made in China Is what pushes it to the lower end and the boards made in USA bring it to the high side.

Of course in he recycler refiner area they pull more PM and copper than I do and I only pull pins and fingers. But it does tell you that the thickness that the gold is laid on is getting thinner as gold price golds up.
Click to expand...

I would not trust &/or do business with this refiner - 4 ozt per ton of COMPUTER boards is not even acceptable & 2 ozt is an out right lie

Do the math --- If a company like boardsort buys China boards at $2/lb & it cost them $1/lb processing fee to have them refined that is $3/lb just to buy & process - that is $6000/ton --- 4 ozt at $1720/ozt = $6800 - now add the cost of shipping, handling, warehouse, pay role, & other cost a company like boardsort has --- I am sure the $800 after the buy & process cost doesn't come close to covering the shipping, handling, warehouse, pay role, & other cost

Yes they also get payed on the silver copper & pladium - but those numbers are still going to fall short of any "worth while" profit. (meaning ad in these metals you might see a profit - if you concider working for $10/hr a profit)

2 ozt/ton as a low &4 ozt/ton as a high is an out right lie - it just does not ad up in the math of board prices plus process cost plus other cost to ship & handle

Kurt
 
I have to agree with Pat on this. I think the few refineries in the world are having the last laugh. There are several reasons i am inclined to think so. First is proper due diligence on the part of the many bulk buyers who have jumped on the band wagon.
I am getting the impression that not too many are properly sampling and assaying their material before submitting it to the smelter. Just skipping that step all together or allowing the smelting operation do it for them.
I get the impression not many are paying to rep their material through the smelting operation, or going to do it them self. Just skip that step as well.

I get the impression that not too many are "highgrading" their material properly. If you are paying a buck a pound for smelting, you better be removing steel, aluminum, screws and any thing else that is going to COST you money to process.

It would be easy for a refiner to screw you royally in such a business model. There are some fantastic posts on here about how material should be handled before, during and after smelting to make sure you get out what you put in, however I get the impression that not many are doing it, Which can close the door entirely for others in the future who would like to do it right. After all it is very easy for a smelter to site safety reasons and policy changes to discourage the few that may try. The common practice of due diligence is being weeded out of the industry.

There was an excuse here for a while that some shipments of boards from China had been cyanide stripped and shipped back here and resold to bulk buyers who took a bath and bla bla bla.... All a load of horse you know what. Then low grade Chinese boards... bla bla bla.. more horse droppings.

The trouble is the smelter is the last liar, if you don't sample,assay and rep, how would you know what you sent in? Just my humble opinion.
 
I know that.
I am not refiner and cant get $ for aluminium, copper steel on boards, but what I can get out of them, make me feel confident to pay up to 5 euro for kilogram.
 
Here is an article I ran across about 4 years ago - in fact this artical is what got me started in gold recovery from E-scrap - pleas note that the 8 - 11 ozt is talking about older computers & that the artical says you can expect lower yealds from computers made after 1997 --- also the last time I talked to Sipi they told me that thier processing fee & pay out was based on a 5.5 ozt minimum recovery of gold & that is the expected yeald from China boards

Kurt

Artical; - One ton (2000 lbs) of "average" circuit board from modern computers and electronics generally yields (in a very good system) between 8 and 11 troy ounces of 24k gold. This gold is found in a number of places, including the plated gold leads referred to earlier, on plated pins inside the connectors and on the board in a number of places and on and within the ic (integrated circuits) on the board itself. In addition, there will generally be around 10 to 20 times this amount in silver from the solder and other components (although depending upon the method of recovery, this yield may not be reached). Some types of electronic board have greater yields of silver and almost no gold; this is generally the board without connector ends and major ics. There are also minute amounts of palladium, platinum and other pgms (mostly in certain capacitors, but also in some chips and connectors). Your highest yields of gold in computer scrap especially are rarely from clipped plated leads, but from the processor/cpu, memory and other ics (which can yield 2 gm/lb or more, depending upon the type and age). Many of the older electronics and early computer equipment will be much much higher in volume, while the newest (97 and newer) I would surmise would be lower
 

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