RAM recycling

[Swissgoldrefiner]

Hello,
I just recived 100kg of RAM gold fingered and i want to process them.
The only part which is containing gold is the finger or it worth to workout as well the other component?
What's usually the yield from 1 kilo of gold fingered ram?

Thanks!

 

[nickvc]

Welcome to the forum.
I may be wrong as I’m no expert at e scrap but I believe there is more gold in the chips than on the fingers but if I’m wrong I’m sure someone will correct me.

 

[Swissgoldrefiner]

But in video on youtube, it looks like the most of people recycle only the fingers.
I didnt find any discussion in the forum about RAM. If you can suggest any recip it can be nice.

 

[nickvc]

Search treating chips and the processes here on the forum there is plenty of information available, some go for incineration other people simply crush to release the bonding wires.
Most things about recovery and refining are covered here and in detail you just have to search and read, if you can’t understand something ask and you will be answered so long as you do your part and read.

 

[kurtak]

But in video on youtube, it looks like the most of people recycle only the fingers.

That's because those videos are only about how to recover & refine the gold finger "part" of the RAM

The process for recovering & refining the gold "inside" the IC chips that are on the RAM is a "completely" different process then the process of doing the fingers

The gold on the fingers is only about half "or less" of all the gold in/on RAM

The other half "or more" of the gold on/in RAM is the gold inside of the IC chip

If all you do is recover the gold from the fingers - then you will recover "less" value in gold - then the value of the RAM if you sell the "whole" RAM to a company that buys circuit boards

In other words the whole RAM as it is - is worth more then the gold on the fingers if you process the fingers only

The gold in the IC chips is VERY small gold bonding wires inside of the epoxy casing so it has its very own process to get that gold

To process the IC chips you first have to incinerate (burn) the chips to turn the epoxy to carbon &/or ash

Then you need to mill (crush) the carbon/ash to turn the carbon/ash to a fine powder (80 mesh or finer)

you then need to sift the milled carbon/ash through an 80 mesh or finer screen to get rid of larger "non" gold wires & the silicon dies inside of the chips

Then you need to pan &/or wash off as much of the carbon/ash as possible so that you end up with a concentrate of mostly gold bonding wires

At this point if you still have bits of carbon in the concentrates you need to incinerate the concentrates to turn the carbon to ash (note - your concentrates will still heavy stuff in the concentrates like small bits of non gold wires, broken bits of the silicon dies &/or fillers/binders that were in the epoxy)

once you have the concentrate with the gold bond wire you can process the concentrates for the gold

You can ether process it with an AR leach (wet chemistry - a hydro process)

Or you can do a smelting process (a pyro process)

Kurt

 

[Geo]

Depending on vintage and make, the chips will contain roughly twice the amount of gold the fingers yield.

 

[Swissgoldrefiner]

Search treating chips and the processes here on the forum there is plenty of information available, some go for incineration other people simply crush to release the bonding wires.
Most things about recovery and refining are covered here and in detail you just have to search and read, if you can’t understand something ask and you will be answered so long as you do your part and read.

To be honest i search with RAM word and i dont get any result...but, yes..i will loook more for it.
thank you

 

[Swissgoldrefiner]

To process the IC chips you first have to incinerate (burn) the chips to turn the epoxy to carbon &/or ash

Then you need to mill (crush) the carbon/ash to turn the carbon/ash to a fine powder (80 mesh or finer)

you then need to sift the milled carbon/ash through an 80 mesh or finer screen to get rid of larger "non" gold wires & the silicon dies inside of the chips

Then you need to pan &/or wash off as much of the carbon/ash as possible so that you end up with a concentrate of mostly gold bonding wires

At this point if you still have bits of carbon in the concentrates you need to incinerate the concentrates to turn the carbon to ash (note - your concentrates will still heavy stuff in the concentrates like small bits of non gold wires, broken bits of the silicon dies &/or fillers/binders that were in the epoxy)

once you have the concentrate with the gold bond wire you can process the concentrates for the gold

But that looks lot of work...dosent really worth for it...no? Incineration is hard to do in small lab or place...
Thank you for you help!

 

[nickvc]

You gave in to easily, there are hundreds of posts about ram chips and chip processing in general you just have to look and read.
If you can’t be bothered to recover the gold from the chips sell the ram as is it’s worth more untouched, I can give you a contact who will buy it as is but if you semi process it then you are left with an unknown product and the price will be much less.
There are no easy refining or recoveries in e scrap in most cases, learning recovery is the hardest part refining is really very easy.

 

[Shark]

There are no easy refining or recoveries in e scrap in most cases, learning recovery is the hardest part refining is really very easy.

Very wise words, often repeated, but seldom listened to.

 

[Swissgoldrefiner]

There are no easy refining or recoveries in e scrap in most cases, learning recovery is the hardest part refining is really very easy.

I agree with you, will let you know how i manage it.
Thanks

 

[ashir]

There are no easy refining or recoveries in e scrap in most cases, learning recovery is the hardest part refining is really very easy.

I agree with you, will let you know how i manage it.
Thanks

Instead of ram, search for ic chips. Almost all ic chips have same mathods , if some have diffrence then you will find during studies.. Fingers have a diffrent mathod, kurtak gives you most easy mathod to work with chips. This mathod can be used on small or large scale. You can use same mathod on all ic chips( not ceramic).
Try to learn inciniration , so you can find some easy and safe mathods of inciniration.
One more thing... untill an authantic person not recomend you, try not to fiollow youtube.

 

[Stowmaster]

Hello everybody! When processing the memory sticks, I got:
4 mg approximately from good finger coverage 1 board
1 mg approximately from finger flush 1 board
0.55 mg from 1 ddr1 chip
0.47 mg on average from 1 ddr2 chip, ddr 2 chips differ significantly
0.2-0.3 mg from the board, if you rework the solder and the rest of the board without fingers and chips.
Perhaps someone the result was more, but not much.
When buying memory sticks, I look more at the number of chips rather than weight.
BR Stowmaster

 

[Rreyes097]

I'm also looking for a good informative thread on here that helps me with learning the process for these ic chips. I've got 772 grams of ic chips. From mostly ram. But they are all the kinds of chips that have no metal legs. So can someone point me in the right direction for learning how to process these specifically the chips without legs. Is wet ashing really that dangerous? Can I just incinerate? I really need a good detailed thread. My searching skills aren't coming up with the kind of thread I need. I'm more then happy to research and read. But I'm not finding the specific one I need.

 

[Martijn]

I've lost all my bookmarks since the new site took over. But there is a 14 page long thread about specific results of ram ic cpu etc. Can't find it anymore.

 

[MicheleM]

Wet ashing method is dangerous and it creates a lot of acid waste , you can incinerate. In your type of RAM chip the gold bonding wires are beneath the tiny black epoxy resin on the back. Personally I polverize the epoxy resin with an engraver machine under a sheet of transparent plastic to avoid dangerous dust diffusion in air. I use a transparent box with water to harvest the dust. It is a slower method but, less dust than other methods. No burning , no crashing, no acid.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

This thread should help: Gold inside chips (black, flatpacks - not CPU)

Dave

 

[Rreyes097]

I have an engraver. But I'm not really following you on the rest. But I found a thread that has all the quantity findings as well as process. It says to put in HCL to boil x3. Then incinerate. It did not specifically say to sieve. But in the other methods it was done so I'm assuming it was done in this method then AR and drop gold as normal. But when it comes to incinerating am I just literally hitting it with the torch or am I cooking it in a pan till it becomes white ash?

 

[Rreyes097]

Seen the thread thanks. But not sure if I'm able to pan out the ash? I think that's what I gathered from that thread. My main question since I've never done it before is incineration do I hit it with the torch or do I put it in a pan and let it cook on a burner? Does it have to be flame on the pot or pan or can it just be a hot plate?

 

[FrugalRefiner]

You should pyrolize the ICs first (bringing them to high heat without oxygen), then incinerate. It's all covered pretty well in the link I gave you.

Dave