A
Anonymous
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Has anyone used Republic Metals Corp in Miami?
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teabone
Well-known member
I will be taking some material to be processed to Republic Metals within the next week.
I will keep the forum informed of the results.
I will keep the forum informed of the results.
patnor1011
Well-known member
How is your experience with them teabone? Will you share your transaction details and feelings with us?
teabone
Well-known member
I'm still waitin for final settlement on i.c chips. Its been two months now since I took my material to them. When I call , they say that they have been backed up and having problems with their incinerator.
Hopefully next week they will have everything done. When finished , I will report back with results of everything !
Hopefully next week they will have everything done. When finished , I will report back with results of everything !
teabone
Well-known member
Sorry it took so long for this update.
I finally got my settlement done, and here are the results.
First the material consisting of black i.c chips with no visible gold weighed in at 449 pounds. Payable ounces of gold was 4.64 and 8.36 ounces of silver for a total of 4,376.89 dollars. Refining fees were 1,218.28 so my check was 3,158.61.
Interesting to me was the lack of palladium, I always thought that these older i.c chips used some palladium ? These i.c chips were a mixture of 1970s thru the 1990s.
Anyway, I also had circuit boards that I had stripped of visible gold such as gold fingers and gold processors. I had over two tons for which Republic bought outright for .85 cents a pound.
After everything was said and done I think they were fairly honest and I know that they are in it to make money too .
The only drawback with them is the time they took too finally settle. It was right at three months for them to finish the i.c chips.
I finally got my settlement done, and here are the results.
First the material consisting of black i.c chips with no visible gold weighed in at 449 pounds. Payable ounces of gold was 4.64 and 8.36 ounces of silver for a total of 4,376.89 dollars. Refining fees were 1,218.28 so my check was 3,158.61.
Interesting to me was the lack of palladium, I always thought that these older i.c chips used some palladium ? These i.c chips were a mixture of 1970s thru the 1990s.
Anyway, I also had circuit boards that I had stripped of visible gold such as gold fingers and gold processors. I had over two tons for which Republic bought outright for .85 cents a pound.
After everything was said and done I think they were fairly honest and I know that they are in it to make money too .
The only drawback with them is the time they took too finally settle. It was right at three months for them to finish the i.c chips.
EDI Refining
Well-known member
teabone said:
They probally didnt process it in-house, farmed it out and took a percentage...
teabone
Well-known member
I think they do most of there processing. When I was down there , I went through their facility and saw a lot of huge machinery such as chippers, furnaces,ball mills and incinerator. They have around 50 employees.
The owners son took me on a brief tour of the place. It's like Ft Knox with all the security they have. The most impressive thing to me was seeing the stacks of gold bars and silver and the massive quantities of chemicals they use is amazing.
The owners son took me on a brief tour of the place. It's like Ft Knox with all the security they have. The most impressive thing to me was seeing the stacks of gold bars and silver and the massive quantities of chemicals they use is amazing.
Hi teabone, they charged almost $3.00 per pound to process the chips? That seems to be one of the highest charges I have ever seen.
Republic Metals Corp. , could you please respond with your refining charges for circuit boards, including all charges? Thanks
Republic Metals Corp. , could you please respond with your refining charges for circuit boards, including all charges? Thanks
It doesn't matter what rates they quote if you don't witness the processing and leave with a sample for assay!
Hi 4metals, I was merely stating that because if you sent them 10,000 lbs of Pentium II and Pentium III computer motherboards and daughterboards. Paid $10,000.00 in purchase of computers, fuel costs, warehouse costs, forklift costs, labor costs etc. and the list goes on and on.
There was two recovery data yields of around $3.00 per pound on this forum for that material. Dismantled over 5000 computers, spent 1000 to 2000 hours of labor (either your own or workers you had to pay) and you would LOSE $10,000.00!
Not even mentioning the fact of the 5000+ monitors you would have to pay $5.00 or more each to dispose of properly because they are classified as hazardous waste.
I think it's important to talk about profits on this forum because we will save many people from wasting time and losing money.
Witnessing and sampling is always required.
There was two recovery data yields of around $3.00 per pound on this forum for that material. Dismantled over 5000 computers, spent 1000 to 2000 hours of labor (either your own or workers you had to pay) and you would LOSE $10,000.00!
Not even mentioning the fact of the 5000+ monitors you would have to pay $5.00 or more each to dispose of properly because they are classified as hazardous waste.
I think it's important to talk about profits on this forum because we will save many people from wasting time and losing money.
Witnessing and sampling is always required.
A
Anonymous
Guest
I have looked at the gold in regular old black chips that are in everything, I think the charge of 3.00 per lb is quite fair from from the amount I have seen with my microscope that is contained in them. If I had 500 lb and could get 3,000 + check I would ship them them out.
Just my opinion
jim
Just my opinion
jim
Hi Jim, opinions are always welcome
It depends how you get 500lbs of black IC chips. That would take 2000 Lbs to 3000 Lbs of circuit boards. Circuit boards are more common than loose chips by themselves. An average circuit board weighs 1/4 Lb, that would mean 8000 to 12000 boards. I would assume someone would have to remove the chips from the circuit board. If you use the heating and banging method, I would guess many , hundreds of hours. Including countless hours to remove the circuit boards from computers.
A $3000.00 check for 1000 hours of work is well below minimum wage. If it was all done in 100 hours, then that's profitable, taking into account all costs involved of course.
I notice no one talks about per hour wage when reclaiming PM's from computers. We are here to help and inform.
Any opinions to contrast this are welcome.
It depends how you get 500lbs of black IC chips. That would take 2000 Lbs to 3000 Lbs of circuit boards. Circuit boards are more common than loose chips by themselves. An average circuit board weighs 1/4 Lb, that would mean 8000 to 12000 boards. I would assume someone would have to remove the chips from the circuit board. If you use the heating and banging method, I would guess many , hundreds of hours. Including countless hours to remove the circuit boards from computers.
A $3000.00 check for 1000 hours of work is well below minimum wage. If it was all done in 100 hours, then that's profitable, taking into account all costs involved of course.
I notice no one talks about per hour wage when reclaiming PM's from computers. We are here to help and inform.
Any opinions to contrast this are welcome.
Daveerf
One thing I have never done is compile a list of what components are worth in terms of PM's. We only refined karat gold and thick film electronics in house and shipped the rest out. We only solicited what we refined in house but we got everything anyway. What I did do was receive material from customers, separate it into processing lots based on the treatment processes needed, and witness the sampling. I never used only 1 refiner, every one has a specialty, and some only farm out the work. What is helpful is to have current quotes on all fees from more than 1 refiner, for the processing method you need for a particular scrap. Then you can ship to where the deal is the most favorable. I haven't shipped electronic components in years but based on what I received as rates in the past, $3.00 per pound for incineration and stream sampling is high. How does a $3.00 per pound on the in weight compare to other refiners? Is there a refining fee as well? What is the accountability? How about minimum deductions? Metal return fees?
Selecting a refiner can be complicated. $3.00 per pound may sound cheap. All of the numbers have to be worked out based on history if all of the other factors I asked about are in the quote it can run the number up even higher.
You are right because if everyone on the forum works together and shares yield data you can fine tune your expected yields to be very accurate.
One thing I have never done is compile a list of what components are worth in terms of PM's. We only refined karat gold and thick film electronics in house and shipped the rest out. We only solicited what we refined in house but we got everything anyway. What I did do was receive material from customers, separate it into processing lots based on the treatment processes needed, and witness the sampling. I never used only 1 refiner, every one has a specialty, and some only farm out the work. What is helpful is to have current quotes on all fees from more than 1 refiner, for the processing method you need for a particular scrap. Then you can ship to where the deal is the most favorable. I haven't shipped electronic components in years but based on what I received as rates in the past, $3.00 per pound for incineration and stream sampling is high. How does a $3.00 per pound on the in weight compare to other refiners? Is there a refining fee as well? What is the accountability? How about minimum deductions? Metal return fees?
Selecting a refiner can be complicated. $3.00 per pound may sound cheap. All of the numbers have to be worked out based on history if all of the other factors I asked about are in the quote it can run the number up even higher.
You are right because if everyone on the forum works together and shares yield data you can fine tune your expected yields to be very accurate.
A
Anonymous
Guest
Part of my assumption is if you have 500 lbs of black ic chips, you should have gotten, fingers, pins, copper, iron and aluminium, before you got the IC chips. So I also assumed that you would have made your wages on them, and the chips were the goodies that I do not think a small time guy (me) could get the gold out of in a reasonable way. I have looked at quite a few of them that I split along the seem with a microscope and all that I looked at had gold wires, no way for me to get them darn things though, since it takes me about 10 minutes to dissemble one in pieces that I can look at.
Edit-------- just figured out, that is 7.03 per lb net to his check, I have seen people go through a lot to get copper at 2.00 +- per lb.
just for the the chips, if you have the volume, you could just air chisel them off PDQ>
Jim
Edit-------- just figured out, that is 7.03 per lb net to his check, I have seen people go through a lot to get copper at 2.00 +- per lb.
just for the the chips, if you have the volume, you could just air chisel them off PDQ>
Jim
teabone
Well-known member
Just for the record, all the black chips were socket type and not soldered. A lot of the chips were obtained from e-bay anywhere from a dollar to five dollars a pound. The rest came from the lot of boards that I sold to them for .85 cents per pound.
I left the soldered chips on the boards , the only exception was if they had gold heat spreaders.
Keep in mind that I processed the gold fingers and all the gold chips and a lot of the pins myself. I recovered several ounces of gold from this lot prior to Republic receiving it.
So what I turned into Republic was the stuff that I was not capable or willing to process myself. Overall I was satisfied with the outcome. The only thing I would question was the lack of palladium in the assay of the black chips.
I left the soldered chips on the boards , the only exception was if they had gold heat spreaders.
Keep in mind that I processed the gold fingers and all the gold chips and a lot of the pins myself. I recovered several ounces of gold from this lot prior to Republic receiving it.
So what I turned into Republic was the stuff that I was not capable or willing to process myself. Overall I was satisfied with the outcome. The only thing I would question was the lack of palladium in the assay of the black chips.
Fournines
Well-known member
daveerf said:
Just to give everyone an update, I'm no longer working for Republic Metals Corporation - so I can't really speak for their refining charges anymore. Republic is a good company and they have very experienced assay lab technicians doing that work. I'm now at SO Accurate Group, we're a refining company located in midtown Manhattan.
That being said, all charges should be very clear before you do business with any refiner. Like 4metals replied, it is always important to watch the process and take your own sample. Of course that is not always easy - depending on the type of material that you are having refined.
If a refiner will not allow you to watch the preparation process, or have your representative watch, then you should consider taking your business elsewhere.
Ok, Precious Metals Settlement from SIPI Metals Corp. Chicago, IL.
Credits_________Content___Unit_________________Description________________Unit Price________Total Price
Gold_____________2.19_____t.o.______________ 2.259 t.o. x 97%_____________$1,368.50_________$2,997.02
Silver____________7.33_____t.o._______________7.714 t.o. x 95%________________27.124___________198.82
Palladium_________0.18_____t.o.______________0.208 t.o. x 85%________________677.45____________121.94
Copper_________109.70_____lbs.______________112.51 lbs. x 97.5%______________3.4555____________379.07
___________________________________________Treatment Charge $0.90/lb.______________________$-896.94
_____________________________________________________________________________Check Total $2,799.91
I did just like teabone and cherry picked the hell out of the boards. Had 2 4' square palletized Gaylord boxes full and a coulpple boxes of various cable ends with pins like printer cables, about 30lbs on those. Kept about 15lbs. of pins, all the socket type ic's and about another 20lbs. of additional chips that were living on the boards. All the fingers I kept, and had these boards very clean, ie; I took off all oil filled capacitors, electrolytic capacitors any steel and aluminum etc. Though if I were doing very large amounts of processing I would not clean them so much.
I took this lot in on 10-29-10 and my settlement was on 12-16-10 AND, they were behind. Net Wt. was 996.6lbs. on that lot. They assayed my sample on 11-24-10 and pay according to the markets on that day, gold on the London PM close, silver on COMEX, Platinum on NYMERC2 (though there was none), Palladium on NYMERC2, and copper on COMEX.
Credits_________Content___Unit_________________Description________________Unit Price________Total Price
Gold_____________2.19_____t.o.______________ 2.259 t.o. x 97%_____________$1,368.50_________$2,997.02
Silver____________7.33_____t.o._______________7.714 t.o. x 95%________________27.124___________198.82
Palladium_________0.18_____t.o.______________0.208 t.o. x 85%________________677.45____________121.94
Copper_________109.70_____lbs.______________112.51 lbs. x 97.5%______________3.4555____________379.07
___________________________________________Treatment Charge $0.90/lb.______________________$-896.94
_____________________________________________________________________________Check Total $2,799.91
I did just like teabone and cherry picked the hell out of the boards. Had 2 4' square palletized Gaylord boxes full and a coulpple boxes of various cable ends with pins like printer cables, about 30lbs on those. Kept about 15lbs. of pins, all the socket type ic's and about another 20lbs. of additional chips that were living on the boards. All the fingers I kept, and had these boards very clean, ie; I took off all oil filled capacitors, electrolytic capacitors any steel and aluminum etc. Though if I were doing very large amounts of processing I would not clean them so much.
I took this lot in on 10-29-10 and my settlement was on 12-16-10 AND, they were behind. Net Wt. was 996.6lbs. on that lot. They assayed my sample on 11-24-10 and pay according to the markets on that day, gold on the London PM close, silver on COMEX, Platinum on NYMERC2 (though there was none), Palladium on NYMERC2, and copper on COMEX.
So you were paid approximately $2.81 per pound for just shy of 1000 pounds of cherry picked boards by SIPI.
Just how little did Republic return for similar material?
Just how little did Republic return for similar material?
