Recover silver and gold from pc boards

[tgrantjr]

I have 10 bins in my basement of antiquated pc equipment i would like to recover the metals from. I want to get the gold, silver, and copper if possible. I am not sure which route to take. I do have a foundry at home that I can easily incinerate the boards in with everything on them. Just cut them smaller to fit in a steel crucible and were golden. The other option is the vinegar and salt method. I will still cut them up to fit in a 5 gallon bucket and put a bubbler in them to keep it moving. Leave it sit for a few weeks. The question I have is I know the gold will not dissolve with that combination. How do i go about recovering the copper and silver from the solution after i get all gold and solids out of it? That is escaping me. If i drop copper in there it will just dissolve and not drop out any metals. Thanks

 

[jimdoc]

You should sell the boards and buy some gold with the money.

 

[denim]

Welcome to the forum tgrantjr. You can learn many things about refining here. You mentioned you have ten bins full of pc scrap to refine for their precious metals. I don't know how big your bins are but I would venture to guess they aren't huge and therefore you probably do not not enough material to make a go of refining it.

This industry requires huge quantities to make it worthwhile. Why don't you post some pictures, and descriptions of what you have then maybe some of us can give you further advice, much of which will be suggestions of what you should be studying before you start any recovery/refining process.

We look forward to seeing your pictures.

Best of luck,
Dennis

 

[rickbb]

How antiquated? There are collectors that pay a lot of money for some of those old PC's. Check ebay.