Some Cell Phone details & ???s

[dtectr]

Here are some photos of Nokia's 60XX series cell phone. These parts seem to contain some values. I have no quantities, as of yet. BTW - this GSM phone had the best reception of any other straight GSM device to date. Construction was modular, so faceplates could be easily interchanged, rather than having tons of thin ribbon cable that would eventually break or short, the pieces were a series of very sturdy modular contacts that would align perfectly with the board. This made this phone repairable indefinitely.

i used a hotplate with steel plate to depopulate & now have some questions:

1). i was going to use AP method to strip plated gold contacts from board but am concerned about solder present. The processes I have available are: A/P, Muriatic crock pot, Sulfuric cell using concentrated sulfuric (Rooto), and HCL-CL. Will any of these work?
i also depopulated one of these boards using a pencil torch & some of the contacts flaked off from the copper plating, but that method seems a little difficult to control.

2). The heat shields[?] are flash-plated Aluminum - can I use these in the sulfuric cell?

3).The main CPU (small, about 1/2" (1.25 cm)) appears to have gold plated contact wires. anyone have any experience with these? i just dropped it under my black computer desk in the dark. great.

I'm not sure how many photos I can upload on this post. The resolution is low to decrease size.

Any comments or questions welcome.
Thanks!

 

[texan]

I have done around 1k of cell phones....

Depopulate the PCB with a heat gun...once you get a little practice you can knock out one side every 15 to 30 seconds. I use a PCB repair stand I picked up at Fry's to hold the board while using the heat gun. Let it drop out of the holder, let it cool some and put another PCB in the repair stand and repeat procedure. Do this in a well ventilated area...I have a fan at my back that blows the fumes away from me. Most of your values are going to be hidden in the microprocessors...the many plated items are the gravy. Tear everything part...sometimes under a microscope if necessary...

My aquisition costs on dead phones run on average under 25 cents per phone. I have had many given to me so that lowers my my cost even more.
Gold at $1200...so .0008333 troy oz = $1.00

This is a hobby venture only...cell phones are very labor intensive. But if you take your time and are careful with your chemistry it will be worth it.
There are other PM's in the phones that I have not even made an attempt to recover as yet besides the gold....this is an ongoing learning process so nothing is discarded except the plastic.

Texan

 

[dtectr]

I have done around 1k of cell phones....

Depopulate the PCB with a heat gun...once you get a little practice you can knock out one side every 15 to 30 seconds. I use a PCB repair stand I picked up at Fry's to hold the board while using the heat gun. Let it drop out of the holder, let it cool some and put another PCB in the repair stand and repeat procedure. Do this in a well ventilated area...I have a fan at my back that blows the fumes away from me. Most of your values are going to be hidden in the microprocessors...the many plated items are the gravy. Tear everything part...sometimes under a microscope if necessary...

My aquisition costs on dead phones run on average under 25 cents per phone. I have had many given to me so that lowers my my cost even more.
Gold at $1200...so .0008333 troy oz = $1.00

This is a hobby venture only...cell phones are very labor intensive. But if you take your time and are careful with your chemistry it will be worth it.
There are other PM's in the phones that I have not even made an attempt to recover as yet besides the gold....this is an ongoing learning process so nothing is discarded except the plastic.

Texan

texan
thanks for voice of experience. one question, amigo - what about the plated contacts on PCB? do you remove solder mask and process or trim and put pieces in A/P? does the solder create a problem or do you recover/save it as a PM?
it drops off as blobs i've been saving for later & under it is more printed plated connections.
this seems relatively new for us here in US but-
*** g02 12/22 p. 28 Watching the World ***
Turning Trash Into Gold
A mining company in Japan has found an easy and more profitable method of acquiring precious metals. Rather than spend much time and money in the search for ore, a smelting and refining company in Akita Prefecture is now melting down scraps from discarded cell phones and computers to retrieve precious metals, reports the newspaper IHT Asahi Shimbun of Tokyo. According to the president of the company, “1 ton of used cell phones—minus batteries—can generate several hundred grams of gold.” Compared with traditional methods of mining, the yield per ton of this “metropolitan mine” can be about ten times greater than that from ore. Moreover, additional investments were not needed to switch processing equipment, as mining cell phones for gold is not very different from extracting metals from ore.
if i come up with something new, i'll be happy to share.
thanks again
jordan

 

[texan]

texan
thanks for voice of experience. one question, amigo - what about the plated contacts on PCB? do you remove solder mask and process or trim and put pieces in A/P? does the solder create a problem or do you recover/save it as a PM?

I dip the PCB's in straight HCL (33%) for about 5 minutes and that will take most of the solder off the avarage board...some may take longer.
it drops off as blobs i've been saving for later & under it is more printed plated connections.

Some boards have gold under the solder mask and some do not...I noticed a board recently that had a layer of gold contacts under where a flat pack had been.

I have not graduated to silver reclamation as yet so I don't know which solders may have silver as yet.

Texan

 

[patnor1011]

dtectr,
as to your question nr2:
2). The heat shields[?] are flash-plated Aluminum - can I use these in the sulfuric cell?

These are not flash-plated Aluminum but oxidized aluminum thus no gold whatsoever on them. Throw them on to your aluminum pile.

 

[Ocean]

Hi everyone.

I'm new here and I buy cell phones and cell phone boards.

I pay a minimum of $4/lb for cell phones and much more for boards.

When I receive the cell phones, I make a list of them and send that list out in an auction to my hundreds of contacs in the cellular industry, sell to the highest bidders, and send you back a portion of that profit.

I have steadily been getting people anywhere from $5-$45/lb depending on the mix I receive.

I have references from many happy customers.

Contact me if you are interested in making more on those cell phones!

When you do the math and look at the value of your time, my method will usually make you much more $.

Thanks,
Jack
www.Relectrocycle.com
jack at relectrocycle dot com

 

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

I am in a unique situation that allows me access to a lot of cell phone scrap or " E-waste". I couldn't help but finally realize that almost all of this scrap has A LOT of gold plating. I have been going up and down the forums but I just can't seem to find a simple answer so here goes. "Sorry I'm new" ......What if any is the simplest way to recover the gold from this scrap ? Can someone point me in the right direction or to a manual or something. Thank you in advance for your help

 

[patnor1011]

Hurikkane,
The best manual will be Hoke`s book. She covers nearly all methods of refining. You need to understand what is going on in every diffferent process to prevent mixups and costly mistakes. They may cost not only your time but some of values too. There are few methods how to recover values from escrap or ewaste. Best thing will be for you to start separating all you got and study that book while you doing so. Manuals are good in simple processes but here is so many factors involved that best manual is understanding what is going on. You can however try some simple methods like AP where there is not too much things which may go wrong. This will be learning experience too. I for start will not try AR or more complicated things. Electronic scrap need lot of preparation before actual refining so dont worry you are not wasting time by learning and acumulating materials.

 

[butcher]

I agree good advice patnor1011.
more gold is lost from not taking time to get educated,
more gold can be recovered with a good education.
and you not only get gold but an understanding that is worth more than metal, and have fun doing it, and you may not kill yourself trying to get that gold by taking the time to learn.