List of Items That Contain Precious Metals

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goldsilverpro

goldsilverpro

In Remembrance
Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Mar 30, 2007
Messages
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Location
Benton, Arkansas
SCRAP ITEMS THAT CONTAIN PRECIOUS METALS

1) Jewelry and Dental
a) Karat Gold
b) Sterling Silver
c) Gold Teeth and Plates
d) Platinum - Pt/Ir, Pt/Ru, etc.
e) Gold-Filled
f) Buffing Dust
g) Filings
h) Floor Sweeps
i) Carpets
j) Traps or Settling Drums and Sludges
k) Dental Amalgam
l) Cyanide Bombing Solutions

2) Coins
a) US 90% Silver
b) US 40% Silver
c) US War Nickels
d) Silver Bullion Coins and Bars
e) Old US Gold Coins
f) Gold Bullion Coins and Bars
g) Canadian 80% Silver
h) World Silver Coins

3) Consumer
a) Gold Filled Eyeglass Frames
b) Silverware, etc.
c) Gold plated plumbing fixtures - faucets, etc.

4) Electronic
a) Personal Computers
b) Circuit Boards
c) Fingers
d) Circuit Board Trim
e) Router Dust
f) Backplanes
g) Mainframes
h) Gold Lids
i) Old Gold IC’s
j) CPU IC’s
k) Hybrid Packages
l) Hybrid Circuits
m) Plastic DIP’s
n) Ceramic DIP’s
o) Lead Frames and Trim
p) TO5’s and TO18’s
q) TO3’s
r) TO92’s and LED’s
s) Relays
t) Thick Film Circuits
u) Thin Film Circuits
v) Pins
w) Connectors
x) Platinum Group Scrap
y) Silver Plated Wire
z) Silver Capacitors
aa) Palladium Chip Capacitors
bb) Gold Backed Silicon Wafers and Chips
cc) Switches, Etc.
dd) Tantalum Capacitors
ee) Silver DMSO Solutions
ff) Solder Preforms – usually Au/Sn or Au/Si

5) Plating and Coatings
a) Gold Plating Solutions
b) Silver Plating Solutions
c) Other PM Solutions
d) Drag Out Solutions
e) Gold Ion Exchange Resin
f) Wipes
g) Danglers and Nodules
h) Liquid Gold Containers
i) Plating Salts
j) Filter Cartridges
k) Gold Stripping Solutions
l) Reject Plated Parts
m) Silver Anodes

6) Electrical
a) Large Silver Contact Points

7) Telephone
a) Wire Relays – Palladium points
b) Other Relays
c) Copper Sticks with heavy gold plating every few inches
d) Cell phones

8 ) Brazes, Pastes, and Solder
a) Circuit Board Solder from Wave Solder Pots
b) Braze and Thick Film Pastes
c) Silver Solder and Brazes
d) Gold Solder and Brazes

9) Photographic
a) Medical X-ray Film
b) Industrial X-ray Film
c) Litho Film
d) Miscellaneous Film
e) Silver Flake
f) Hypo Solutions
g) Steel Wool Canisters
h) Ion Exchange Resin
i) Emulsions

10) Jet Engine
a) Gold Brazed Stators
b) Gold Brazed Stator Segments
c) Gold or Gold/Palladium Brazed Twin Rotor Blades
d) Gold/Platinum Pitot Tubes
e) Gold Fuel Manifolds
f) Gold Fuel Plumbing
g) Silver and Silver/Palladium Stators
h) Silver Brazed Stator Segments
i) Miscellaneous Aircraft Parts

11) Automobile
a) Headlamps
b) Oxygen Sensors
c) Spark Plugs
d) Catalytic Converters

12) Catalysts
a) Catalytic Converter Catalysts
b) Ethylene Oxide Silver Catalysts
c) Petroleum Catalysts

13) Mining Materials
a) Gold Nuggets
b) Gold Dust
c) Gold Ore
d) Gold Amalgam
e) Dore Bars
f) Black Sand

14) PM Refinery Scrap
a) Silver Chloride
b) Slags
c) Crucibles
d) Refiner's copper based bars

15) Miscellaneous
a) Evaporating and Sputtering Chamber Scrap
b) Silver Plated Copper or Brass
c) Button Batteries
d) Military Silver Batteries
e) Military Salt Water Conversion Kits - Silver
f) Silver Solder Brazed Heat Exchangers
g) Platinum and Pt/Rh or Pt/Ir Thermocouple Wire
h) Platinum Lab Crucibles
i) Gold, Silver, or Palladium Leaf
j) Solid Silver Wire
k) Sputtering Targets
l) Costume Jewelry – Gold or Rhodium Plated
m) Memory Disks – Gold and/or Rhodium Plated
n) Computer hard drives
 
More detail please: what telephones have palladium points and copper sticks with heavy gold plating? What is a steel wool canister?
 
It's just a list. I don't have the time right now to make it detailed. One of these days. I have thought about it. All 3 of these items have been discussed on the forum. The first 2 are contained in old telephone switching equipment. The last is used to remove silver from photo fixer solution.
 
These were memory disks used on some computers in the 70s. If I remember right, they were about 1/4" aluminum with a cobalt or nickel magnetic layer plated on them. A final precious metal coating was used to protect the magnetic layer and prevent oxidation. Gold and/or rhodium plating was commonly used. It seems to me that some of these were as large as 48" in diameter, although most were much smaller.

You've probably seen photos of the memory units of some of these computers. Some had a number of disks stacked up inside of a chamber. Sort of looked like an old jukebox that played 78 RPM records.
 
Chris....I scrapped some.....aww man.
They are gone.
I hung on to them for a time, thinking there might be something good on them.
Thinking about it though, I think these were from the 80s, so perhaps not the same. They were big though.
 
Platdigger, my friend,

They weren't gold, of course, or you would have surely noticed. Could have been rhodium. It seems the Rh ones had a bluish cast to them. A partner of mine had previously owned a company that plated these discs. I think his Rh plating bath was the largest one in the U.S., at the time. I know they had some problems with the PGM discs, because pure PGMs tend to polymerize organics out of the air and a brownish coating could appear on them after a period of time. Of course, we were in L.A. - smog city. Under a scope, you could move this coating around with a probe, into little sticky balls. Looked like a super thin coating of rubber cement under the scope.

Some may have used Pt. Also, I'm thinking that some had a non-PM, transparent, organic coating on them, but it's been over 30 years since I've seen any of these. Most that I saw were gold plated. Like everything, there were probably both cheapo and high dollar varieties, depending on the application.
 
I have a pretty good selection of old platters. Have to dig em out.

GSP- 10) Jet Engine
a) Gold Brazed Stators
b) Gold Brazed Stator Segments
c) Gold or Gold/Palladium Brazed Twin Rotor Blades
d) Gold/Platinum Pitot Tubes
e) Gold Fuel Manifolds
f) Gold Fuel Plumbing
g) Silver and Silver/Palladium Stators
h) Silver Brazed Stator Segments
i) Miscellaneous Aircraft Parts

Are the pitot tubes solid Pt or plated?
In just the blackbox or dash instruments as well?
 
DNIndustry,

I have only seen one type of pitot tube that had Au/Pt in it. I used to get about 20 of these at a time from a scrapper and don't know what military plane they came from. They were shaped sort of like a fat, gun-like, spray nozzle used on a water hose - maybe 5" tall X 3" wide. The outside shell was copper, of which I dissolved the bottom in nitric to get to the insides. An inside shaft contained a solid pure platinum ring about 3/8" dia. and 1/8" thick. I am thinking there was also a smaller solid gold ring. There was a tube about 3/8" x 3" made up of some sort of material like fiberglass, intertwined with gold. The weight of this tube was about 40% gold. The insulated electrical wires on the inside were usually solid platinum and/or gold, although a few were copper. Very high value units, although I don't remember exactly how much. It's been 25 years since I've seen these, so my memory may not be perfect.

Chris
 
big red 211,

What type of headlights are you talking about on cars? The sealed beam, halogen, HID?
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I don't know. I saw a discussion about them on another forum. I'm sure that someone here could answer your question.
 
Year old thread resurrected.

I have heard (I do not know) that some headlamp reflectors had a flash plate of Rh due to its reflectivity and lack of corrosion. But even at $10,000.00 rhodium it was not cost effective to chase after.
 
Thanks, I was not aware of the Au/Si solder. Thought he meant silver. Found this with google.
"gold plating of silica nanoparticles for use in composite solders"
 
The moderators would like to thank all of the members who contributed to the original thread that this post was based on, as well as those who asked questions showing what was missing. Because of the extra length and interest in this thread we have created the above, consolidated version making for an easier read. We encourage all members to read, comment, and ask questions in the original thread, List of Items That Contain Precious Metals.

The moderators have edited some posts in this thread that made reference to posts that were deleted. We strive to make these Library threads as concise as possible by deleting posts that do not add information to the original topic. All of the original posts are still preserved in the thread listed above.

The Library threads should not be considered to constitute a complete education. Instead, they're more like reading a single book on the subject of recovery and refining. There is so much more information on the forum, and it is impossible to include it all in these condensed threads. Members are strongly encouraged to read the rest of the forum to round out their education.

For those who prefer a printed copy, a pdf file of this thread is provided below.
 

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