Telecommunication boards

[CBentre]

Very well done Kevin, glad to see the positive turnaround. I think you just added a few bricks to that empire.

 

[kjavanb123]

OTB

Thanks for your comments. Pins have not yielded much, but there was some gold fingers as following picture which I stripped with cyanide.

260g of gold fingers removed from telecomm boards,


In cyanide leach,


Fingers after being stripped,


Yield for this 260g fingers was 0.4g not so pure powder.


I will post results on silver recovered from digesting CPUs in AR.

Regards
Kj

 

[Anonymous]

You're not likely to get a gold yield from non gold pins Kevin. Why didn't you separate those out before processing. They are clearly visible.

Edit: Maybe that's the light so I'll apologise for that assumption. There is one thing I'd ask though. You're new to using AR and basic processes, what on earth possessed you to jump to cyanide processing when you haven't mastered the basics of the chemistry in the other processes?

If you get this process wrong the way you messed up the equations and chemistry on the processors then you'll die. Plain and simple. Stop it now until you know what you're doing because right now you're a liability to yourself and anyone with you.

 

[goldsilverpro]

Kevin does just fine. He's been on here for 5 years and has always been active. He knows a lot more than you're giving him credit for.

Kevin, those numbers on the fingers look quite low to me. You need a way to analyze the solution after zincing to make sure the gold is all out. There's a go-no go method in the Hoke book that takes a small amount of sample, acidifies it with HCl (under the hood), and then tests it with stannous chloride - I've never tried this. In my experience, though, zinc will not remove 100% of the gold. Every time I have checked it on an AA, around 1 to 4 ppm, or less, remained. That's not really enough to worry about, but it might show positive on the Hoke test. The best method for testing refining solutions is an AA (Atomic Absorption). You might find an old used analog one for a few $100. I actually prefer the analog ones. The digital ones are much more complicated. It's great to have a AA in a refinery - instant results. Personally, I wouldn't do without one. The only rub is that you need a lamp for each element and they run about $100 and up.

You might consider plating out the gold instead of using zinc. I can help you on this if you're interested.

 

[Anonymous]

Fair enough GSP, but I'm sure you won't mind if we respectfully agree to differ mate.

 

[skippy]

The member Arthur from Brazil would process cell phone board with a combination of depopulation, incineration, cyanide, etc as appropriate, and
from a certain perspective, it would maybe make more sense to have them processed by a smelter, but who can say what local considerations may affect such decisions. As I recall Kevin is an Iranian national, and may not be able to do business at all with the western smelter. If he tried to have boards processed abroad, he might never see the money or boards again,

Kevin, very glad to see you doing well on this, and your determination is commendable. I know there has been a lot of naysaying on some of your approaches - a fair deal justified and warranted cautioning, and some maybe reflexive. It's no small task to do these things on the scale you have been working in a manner that maintains a safe and non toxic working environment. Be careful with the cyanide, and do what you can to look after your workers - dust control is important for the areas where these materials are disassembled. With all those conditions, you have my blessings!

 

[kjavanb123]

Skippy,
Thanks for your words of support on my ventures.

GSP,
Thanks a lot for your valuable information you have been sharing with all us, I would look into AA machine as I will need them to assay my future Dore bars.
Cyanide solution plating gold using 2 steel sheets connected to power supply? Please advise on detail.
Samuel also in one post mentions using steel wires to drop the gold.

Spaceship,
I have followed every safety instructions given by pro members here when handling cyanide and I truly find cyanide method very fast and reliable, and have stored a gallon of rinses and left over to be converted to a safer cyanate according to 4metals.

Regards
Kevin

 

[nickvc]

Kevin just make sure you mark any containers of cyanide waste very well and be sure they are kept separate from your acid wastes and that any staff know the difference, maybe a locked storage area for any cyanide just to be sure.
I know cyanide works but it gives no second chances please be very careful especially around your staff if you continue to use it and keep it carefully contained and stored.

 

[skyos]

HI,

I read this few weeks ago, maybe can help .

Best regards

 

[kjavanb123]

Nickvc,

Thanks for your comments, I have put all my cyanide left over solution inside 5 liter buckets with tight seals, and tag them cyanide waste solution and kept separated. I will decompose them after I have completed my recovery from items, following 4metals posts.

After adding water to AR solution and collecting the white percipitant I turned them to silver oxide using lye method, however a very gray residue left which is not dissolving in neither ammonia or nitric acid, could this be tungsten? Since I processes ceramic CPUs, AR could have dissolved the tungesten in them and adding water precipitated its salt along with silver.

Regards
Kevin

 

[nickvc]

Kevin I'm pleased to hear of your precautions and my warnings are a general one aimed at anyone reading this thread.

 

[Anonymous]

Good luck Kevin.

Please take my comments as being genuinely worried for your health as opposed to anything else.

 

[kjavanb123]

Spaceship,

Your comments are greatly apperciated and accepted. I am going to dissolve the unknown gray precitpitants in AR to see if it dissolves, test for Tungsten.

Regards
Kevin

 

[kjavanb123]

All,

I should thank GSP again for his valued posts, since I ran out of m-NBSS for the pins, I tried susbtitue peroxide per his instructions in his posts, he metnioned 2-3 oz of NaCN for every 2 gallons of hot water, then start with 30ml of 35% hydrogen peroxide, so I scaled it down to the following numbers since I was using 1 liter of tab water, here are the calculation for peroxide and cyanide salt:

Cyanide needed for 1 liter soultion = (1000 ml x 28.349g) / 3765 ml = 7.52 g, but I used 20g of NaCN. Then filled up a beaker to 25 ml of hydrogen peroxide, dissolved that amount of cyanide in one liter hot tab water, put the parts inside a bucket that has holes around it, and put them inside the beaker, then slowly dropped a few ml of peroxide and boom immidiately most of the gold was stripped, some of the pins still not stripped, so I shook the beaker and after 2 mins all pins were cleaned from gold.
Amazing, so I put the bucket in 2 rinses and combined all of them, to be processed tommorow keeping my fingers crossed for the result.

Here are some photos, first the pins removed from the telecomm boards that are being stripped,


After 3 mins in cyanide leach, and rinsed twice,


Here is rinses and main solution prior to combining them,


And combined solution ready for zinc addition tommorow, please note as the color of solution using peroxide and cyanide is diffent from using m-NBSS, the later one is more yellow to orange.


Your comments as always are very constructive.


Regards
Kevin

 

[kjavanb123]

Update on my last post, processing 2kg of pins and their plastic casing, using sodium cyanide and hydrogen peroxide, here is the brown powder after zincnwas removed using nitric acid, results were not that good only 0.5g of pure gold powder,


Here is another batch of 6.660 kg of pins and their plastic casings, this time I used 3.4 liter of water added 120g of sodium cyanide and 50ml of peroxide, extraction was completed without any issues except for one part that gold plated back on the pins as black powder as you can see the following;


I put the filter papers and whatever gold I could squeeze every nano grams of gold from them, boiling in AR using minimal amount of nitric acid,


Ready for SMB addition


Gold plated back to the pins, as black powder,


Tommorow, I have to purify and weigh the gold powder produced from 6.6kg of pins and their casings, and come up with a creative idea to process the rest of pins that got coated with this black gold.

Regards
Kevin

 

[Anonymous]

Guys

Since cyanide processing appears to be openly discussed on the forum these days, do you think it would be appropriate for a decent thread/post to be put up from someone reputable such as GSP (sorry for stitching you up there but I know that you're utterly proficient at this) so that the membership sees the right way to do this if they choose to follow this path?

If it's now out in the open then at least we should ensure that it's done safely.

Jon

 

[nickvc]

It's an old process with many advantages if you can source the chemicals, it has many dangers as only one mistake is deadly and it has many advantages as in it tends only to dissolve gold, silver and copper, used with proper care and with attention to detail it really is simple and easy, but.....
Not to sure how far I want to promote this process, there are no second chances, it will kill you if your sloppy or unaware, realising your mistake is usually to late!
Now we are discussing this process perhaps an A-Z maybe advisable but the problem is due to the fact that 40% of the population can't smell the stuff, careful and precise use of cyanide is a must, I repeat yet again there are no second chances....

 

[necromancer]

It's an old process with many advantages if you can source the chemicals, it has many dangers as only one mistake is deadly and it has many advantages as in it tends only to dissolve gold, silver and copper, used with proper care and with attention to detail it really is simple and easy, but.....
Not to sure how far I want to promote this process, there are no second chances, it will kill you if your sloppy or unaware, realising your mistake is usually to late!
Now we are discussing this process perhaps an A-Z maybe advisable but the problem is due to the fact that 40% of the population can't smell the stuff, careful and precise use of cyanide is a must, I repeat yet again there are no second chances....

how many people will read through the whole thing ?

i dont think i would use cyanide, unless i had proper training first. maybe a cyanide training and safety thread and let users get the other info already posted

would think it would put a whole lot of burden on GSP to post this, you never know who will try this & where they will try this, let alone store the cyanide :!:

no one wants to start seeing headlines on the news about "e scrapper poisons neighbourhood with cyanide cloud"

 

[CBentre]

Probably not a good subject to be promoting even if proper procedures are followed.

 

[goldsilverpro]

Don't eat it!!!
Don't mix it with acids unless you have a damned good fume hood!!!
Learn how to treat the waste!!!

I've used it so much without incident that I believe it is safer than almost any other processes we use.

It is the miracle chemical for what we do.