Processing sim cards

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GOLDbuyerCA said:
Very Interesting in a way, because of such exact standardization , it seems to me, this salvage is very much like a Pentium Pro recovery data. i for one, have been paying to much per hundred, and
recently adjusted to 8 USD per lb. for 50 lb sizes. by my observation, the plating is 15 micro inches of 99.7 Gold. i find a trace of nickel in the actual plating, " a hardener and brightener " if one gets this wrong,
in purchase, the processing " time and labour/ chemicals " eats up all bonus value / profit. So far, i am not doing so good, sure i can process quickly, but the yields are small, my quick estimate is .75 grams per kilogram.
i am watching the results here in interest, thanks all. OH yea, i charge for toxic waste dump, There is a place in Richmond BC, that has a no cost for disposal. " better the toxic be known, and taken care of, than dumped helter skelter . Thomas Gx in Vancouver Canada
I agree totally with buying them by the lb instead of by the number count (pieces).

Are you paying $8 lb for sim cards? If so, would you be willing to sell them for a profit?

Kevin
 
Are you paying $8 lb for sim cards? If so, would you be willing to sell them for a profit?

Kevin Hi Kevin, "testerman" Yes, i am downward averaging, on sim cards, With your process and efficiency
and making a network of procurement you may be able to do a better value recovery than i.

i form my opinion of recovery value, from the higher prices expected in the spring of 2013 and promised by
refiners in California to the Bay Area customers. " scrappers " my latest trip down from Vancouver, stopping off at Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Redding to get to Oakland, showed that falling prices, " gold value " put the damper on a lot of folks, Some scrappers were told of recovery values of nearly $100 a lb, "imperial" well some got 50, most 45 a lb, from the super concentrate "foils"

As i am typing this Kitko is reporting gold at 40 dollars an ounce down. and falling, this whole process has shifted recovery values, to near fifty percent lower, for the same amount of work. procurement, holding, refining, and selling. i have been trying to make a trap line, giving good returns, and it is NOT easy. Shipping costs me 3 dollars a lb, just to get my values to Canada.

All of us, should be cautious of overvaluing , promising exceptional returns, to get scrap. and rushing the job. it takes me 6 to 8 working weeks to do a full return.

to answer your question, would i be willing to sell sim cards to you, " if i had excess, i could , but it would be expensive to reship them to your State " as it now stands, i can process all that i can acquire. .

Listening out for your values, you have found. Thomas Gx, Vancouver Metro Canada .
 
GOLDbuyerCA said:
Are you paying $8 lb for sim cards? If so, would you be willing to sell them for a profit?

Kevin Hi Kevin, "testerman" Yes, i am downward averaging, on sim cards, With your process and efficiency
and making a network of procurement you may be able to do a better value recovery than i.

i form my opinion of recovery value, from the higher prices expected in the spring of 2013 and promised by
refiners in California to the Bay Area customers. " scrappers " my latest trip down from Vancouver, stopping off at Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Redding to get to Oakland, showed that falling prices, " gold value " put the damper on a lot of folks, Some scrappers were told of recovery values of nearly $100 a lb, "imperial" well some got 50, most 45 a lb, from the super concentrate "foils"

As i am typing this Kitko is reporting gold at 40 dollars an ounce down. and falling, this whole process has shifted recovery values, to near fifty percent lower, for the same amount of work. procurement, holding, refining, and selling. i have been trying to make a trap line, giving good returns, and it is NOT easy. Shipping costs me 3 dollars a lb, just to get my values to Canada.

All of us, should be cautious of overvaluing , promising exceptional returns, to get scrap. and rushing the job. it takes me 6 to 8 working weeks to do a full return.

to answer your question, would i be willing to sell sim cards to you, " if i had excess, i could , but it would be expensive to reship them to your State " as it now stands, i can process all that i can acquire. .

Listening out for your values, you have found. Thomas Gx, Vancouver Metro Canada .
I did my AR solution of the sim cards, and although I don't have as much gold as I would expect, I started with LESS than half lb of them. I will dry up my powder and melt it to see how much I have. The way I'm thinking about stripping the sim cards of all foreign objects, there has to be at least 1+gram of gold per lb of STANDARD sim cards. My first batch yielded gold, but it can be better, I'm confident of that.

I'm going to try to get some more, and this time I'm going to strip them the way I was going to do them the first time, but didn't. From all yields so far that I've read, there is LESS than 1.gram of gold in the standard Sim cards. I believe there is at least 1g+ in 1 lb of them. If a 1gram+ can be recovered from the sim cards, then if they can be bought by the lb, it'll be worth the efford, as long as the price is good and profitable.

My first run and experiment went well. I just now know what to do before I AR the gold from the sim cards, a FRESH bath of diluted NaOH.


Kevin
 
I had / have 50 or so micro sims, very simple weights, 10 = 1 gram, I removed the chips and guess what, 10 = .5 grams, So the numbers work out nice.
 
Please take the proper safety precautions when using hot NaOh !!!!!
Your eyes being the most important. Wear eye protection and pay special attention to any mist. The mist will get you quicker than the liquid.
 
I am wondering if it is possible for the chips from sim cards to have gold bonding wires inside the chips,
and if it would be worth processing them like flatpacks.
 
Certainly possible, and when the chip is encased in clear resin you can see the bond wires and the color to find out if it is gold or not.

Göran
 
Thanks Palladium and others for this super informative thread.
I have come upon a Ton (yes 2,200 lbs = 1,000 kg) of SIM cards. The NaOH process of boiling gently in a beaker or SS pot works great for a pound at a time. But can this be scaled up in a lab so as to get these done in some reasonable time frame? How can one boil 10 or 20 pounds at a time? Or will the process work with warm NaOH, only take longer?
 
Many years ago we would heat lye in fifty gallons drums using a burner from a gas hot water heater. Used a chain hoist to set a whole machine in it to. It would strip 50-100 years worth of built up grease in minutes.
 
Just a giant fan that exhausted straight out side building. We only used occasionally and it was back when even OSHA didn’t have much problems with it.
 
Update after an 18 month break—-
Now boiling 5 lbs SIMs per batch in a 16 Gal drum filled halfway with 20% NaOH (2.5 kg in 60 litre steel drum).
First problem: gold part still sticking to the plastic base at one point, so not releasing.
Second: With AR, a constant black plume is released from the parts and into solution. The entire solution turns almost black within a few minutes. And almost no Stannous indicator of gold. Pics attached.
Any ideas/suggestions?
Thanks!
Len
 

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Update after an 18 month break—-
Now boiling 5 lbs SIMs per batch in a 16 Gal drum filled halfway with 20% NaOH (2.5 kg in 60 litre steel drum).
First problem: gold part still sticking to the plastic base at one point, so not releasing.
Second: With AR, a constant black plume is released from the parts and into solution. The entire solution turns almost black within a few minutes. And almost no Stannous indicator of gold. Pics attached.
Any ideas/suggestions?
Thanks!
Len
Why do you use NaOH?
And not AP?
 
Why do you use NaOH?
And not AP?
As per Palladium and others in this thread, NaOH dissolves the glue that holds the gold part to its plastic backing, and also causes the backing to warp and peel away, thus releasing the part.
AR will dissolve any gold it contacts, while AP will only attack base metals which is not the goal here.
 
Yes, I’ve seen this Patnor, and salute your efforts. I’m not a big fan of incineration, especially with the volumes I have. But your AP and then Nitric baths look interesting.
Did you get a very dark solution with AR? How did you drop and purify your gold from that dark solution please?
Unless you incinerate you will not get the bond wires in the chip.
And I guess there is where most of the Gold are.

Edit for text error.
 
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