Majority of current e-scrap

[dherik]

Here's what I'm working with, the board is from some stuff we work on here.



That large gold plate is on both sides, 4 test connects are gold plated, and 4 more gold plated connectors in the center of the board.


What would be the best process to refine these? I have I'd say right now about 300 of them. And that's from the last year or so.

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forum Dherik.
In order for us to better help you we will ne some more info.We need the size(inches) of the board,manufacturer if you have it,and the date manufactured if possible.What exactly did these come out of? If these came from the company you work for,would you be able to provide us with the purchase price.
All of this may sound like it doesn't matter much,but if you take the purchase price,and the date it was made......we can figure out how much gold is NOT in them.Say the board cost $20 and it was made today.....then we would know there there is less than $20 worth of gold in them.
If you can answer any of these questions we can go from there.

 

[dherik]

The board is about 7 inches across, 5 1/2 inches high, about 1/8th thick.

I can't release the manufacturer name, but I know our cost as the only service facility in the country we pay in excess of 300 per board.

Also, these boards have been made since 1978 with very few design changes, besides some the electronics on the board.

 

[Anonymous]

Without more information,It would be hard to say.....you could have a total of $50 worth of gold,or you could have a total of $300 worth of gold.It's just hard to say.My guess would be that you have less than $500 worth of gold total from all of the boards.
Of course processing them will be next to impossible unless you have a cell...but the good news is,you could do them relatively quickly in a cell,the bad news is,that plating looks like it is alloyed.It may just be me,but it looks like it has a hint of a pink hue to it.

 

[lazersteve]

You can get an idea of what yields to expect by weighing out 454g of the stripped down boards.

Next you will need a set of metal tin snips (I like the straight bladed ones) . Assuming the back side is plated in the same area as the side shown in the photo, snip out the section that is plated with gold.

Weigh the snipped out sections from the pound (454g) of boards. record this weight in your lab book.

Process the gold plated sections you snipped out using AP or the stripping cell and record the yield of gold from the snipped sections of the boards.

Now you will have an idea of what to expect in gold yields from a single pound of the boards.

The components on the board may also contain some gold, silver, and possible PGMs.

Steve

 

[Militoy]

The board is about 7 inches across, 5 1/2 inches high, about 1/8th thick.

I can't release the manufacturer name, but I know our cost as the only service facility in the country we pay in excess of 300 per board.

Also, these boards have been made since 1978 with very few design changes, besides some the electronics on the board.

I'm guessing that by "some of the electronics" you mean all of the electronics. Many of the SMT package types you have on that PCB weren't designed until the late 80's and even 90's - so I'm assuming at some more recent point in time the board was transitioned from through-hole to SMT.

 

[Anonymous]

The board is about 7 inches across, 5 1/2 inches high, about 1/8th thick.

I can't release the manufacturer name, but I know our cost as the only service facility in the country we pay in excess of 300 per board.

Also, these boards have been made since 1978 with very few design changes, besides some the electronics on the board.

I'm guessing that by "some of the electronics" you mean all of the electronics. Many of the SMT package types you have on that PCB weren't designed until the late 80's and even 90's - so I'm assuming at some more recent point in time the board was transitioned from through-hole to SMT.

Not to mention the gold content will be significantly different on 2 exact same boards,one manufactured in 1978,and one manufactured in the 90's.

 

[dherik]

Not to mention the gold content will be significantly different on 2 exact same boards,one manufactured in 1978,and one manufactured in the 90's.

From what I've gotten from the engineers at the manufacturing company, the only thing that changed on the board itself was the material that made up the PCB in the last two revisions. This company is one that sticks with a design as long as they possibly can. The layout changed when parts where updated, but the cell plate thickness remained the same, mainly because of what the equipment does.