IP STB's,and such, Worth it??

[Heaven's Pavement]

Howdy, newby here.
Found this site couple day ago
This Stuff sound soo cool to me.
Urban prospecting LOL.
Anyway the place I work for is getting rid of Ip TV set top boxes.
Here is the main board, see lots of gold "dots" on the board itsself, rest copper, is that woth anything, chips, pins, ect.
will have access to several hundred for free.
has metal casing(aluminum?)
Comments?
also what about ethernet cable ends, phone/ether jacks ends.
thank you in advance for your input !

 

[Heaven's Pavement]

He, he, only one pic per post??

 

[Heaven's Pavement]

another...

 

[Heaven's Pavement]

last one, thanks!

 

[Noxx]

No, you can upload up to 5 pics per post if I remember correctly

 

[SapunovDmitry]

Looks like it has about 70-90 ppm of gold on it.

 

[Heaven's Pavement]

"70-90 ppm", not worth it eh?
Maybe if I had time to read more i'd be able to figure it out on my own, its just several pallets of these are goin to be "junked".
I was thinking the pins, and Maybe the 2 chips with gold at the corners.
If several hundred , and by the time they are all pulled out, around a 1000.
would be woth it.....
oh well....

 

[Rag and Bone]

They aren't worth your time to process yourself. They would have value if you can get a half ton or so and send it to a refiner.

 

[Heaven's Pavement]

1/2 ton of chips and stuff or boxes?
could be several tons of boxes..
will eventually refine myself when I learn..
thank you!

 

[Rag and Bone]

No boxes. Just boards, components and anything with copper or PMs. You can only do so much yourself (cherry pick). All the rest goes to the big refiner. Most places charge you per pound, you can save money by removing excess weight (steel, transformers, plastic, anything heavy with low value). PM me your location and I might be able to recommend someone.

 

[SapunovDmitry]

500 000 gr *0,009% = 45 gramms of Au.
500 kg* 10 % = 50 kg of copper.
8109 USD *0,05 = 405$ for copper and 1500 $ for gold. Maybe 100-200 $ for PGMs. It's the case you take pure metals from boards. But i think it should be taken to the refinery. Then the value will be divided by 2 or 3.

Actually it's just the info for simmilar boards from my assay book and it has nothing to do with real life experience at refining plants. It's very hard for me to make such estimations. Maybe Steve, GSP, Harold or other professional refiners can make more accurate guesses.

Btw.....
I am not sure again but each of those pins has about 0,1-0,15 mlgr of gold. :roll:

 

[Rag and Bone]

SapunovDmitry,

Do you have any estimates on silver or Pd content in boards? My people are saying there was no significant quantity from a half ton load of boards and memory (mostly pre '97). There was a good bit of gold though. 8)

 

[silversaddle1]

Why even mess with trying to refine the boards? I'm sure those would pass as "high grade" boards at a scrapyard. Could be worth as much as $2.70 a pound pulled from the chassis. Call around, get some quotes, and be sure to let the buyers know you will have about 1000 of these when you are done. The more you have, the better the price will be. Keep the wire seprate as well as the steel and the power supply's. They will each have their own value. It would be well worth your time to scrap them.

 

[Oz]

Whether he is going to refine them himself or not the best place to be in when selling is knowing what you have and what it is worth. They sure the heck won’t tell you. A scrap buyers job is to buy for as little as possible. An educated seller is as important as being an educated buyer.

This forum is the exception to the rule to be sure.

 

[SapunovDmitry]

I am not sure these boards are high grade stuff.
High grade stuff has ALOT more details,and what is the most inportant, THE BOARD weights much less. Look at the cell phone board and that's what is a high grade stuff.

I gave a link to Aflac's document couple of days ago. It has some silver and PGM estimations.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=559&start=30&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=
I think it is VERY useful.

 

[Heaven's Pavement]

Thanks for the responses!
What I was thinking was grap the pins and at least the 2 chips that have the "gold tab".
the eqiptment would be of no cost to me.
the case is some kind of metal, not positve what.
I can process the boards out very quickly,which is good becouse the meatl cases would need to go rather quickly(space hog) while the boards I would "play with" longer.
I've got lots to learn and I know it.
Found this site "by accident" as I come from "playing in the dirt" prospecting, and a green horn at that, but I am getting color, LOL.
Live in the far North USA btw.
Thanks agian.

 

[Oz]

It sounds like you are going to try your hand at processing these. A suggestion… do a couple of batches of only 10 boards each first. Then you can learn the process as well as see yields and if it is worth your time and chemicals to process them vs selling them on crazybay. I would be interested in hearing what you find in yields.

Oz

 

[Rag and Bone]

Those pins and chips won't yield more than a gram or two per pound. See how long it takes to get to a pound.

 

[Heaven's Pavement]

The thing is , it is take it all or nothing deal.
Yea the pins are not plated all the way down, LOL.
Question, besides the 2 chips with the gold "flag" corner, what about others?
might be able to get tossed cell phones.
Now I need to talk to our IT dept for dead PC parts.

 

[Oz]

Hey Rag and Bone,

It sure doesn’t hurt anything learning on pins and chips, it’s what I started out on. It sounds like he is already looking to other sources and it wouldn’t be a bad idea him getting a few blisters on his fingers before he has karat gold and no experience.

So have your blisters turned into calluses yet? I’m still waiting on mine.