Where's the gold?

wbradbury · Mar 12, 2012

Hello,

I'm new to the site but already think it's great! I picked up some old computers and have dismantled them. I was hoping someone could tell me exactly which pieces contain gold or other PMs. I know the pins in chips have gold and the fingers are obviously gold. Is there any other gold on the mother boards that I am missing. I don't want to throw anything out if its good. I'm hoping to learn the refining processes with this stuff. I've included some pics (not to gloat) but to show what I'm working with. Thanks in advance!

patnor1011 · Mar 12, 2012

Apart from visible plating there is some gold on places where you do not see it. It is worth to save all black chips, some of them contain a lot of gold as bonding wires, some have pins inside plated. There will be silver and palladium in there too.
Check this thread:
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=11827

There are a lot of threads about what to harvest/process from printed circuit boards.

jack_burton · Mar 12, 2012

Rule Number 1:
Never throw anything out. Almost everything inside a PC has value and there is someone out there willing to pay for it.

Rule Number 2:
If you don't know where the values are, don't destroy a board or chip if you think you might want to sell it someday. See rule number 1.

Start with the easy stuff, as you mentioned- Fingers and CPU. Sell or horde the other parts until you have a solid understanding of the process and have accumulated the equipment needed to safely run all the other stuff.

wbradbury · Mar 12, 2012

Excellent advise from both, thanks! I did pull one of the black ceramic (I think) chips off a board and opened it. The legs were silver in color as well as the small amount of metal inside. I ran a magnet over it and the magnet picked up all the metal easily. Any ideas on what metal this would be?

goldsilverpro · Mar 12, 2012

wbradbury said:
Excellent advise from both, thanks! I did pull one of the black ceramic (I think) chips off a board and opened it. The legs were silver in color as well as the small amount of metal inside. I ran a magnet over it and the magnet picked up all the metal easily. Any ideas on what metal this would be?

Kovar - 54Fe 29Ni 17Co, if I remember right. Very magnetic.

Claudie · Mar 12, 2012

The Gold wires inside of the chips (packages) are so small that you can't see them with the naked eye. They are called bonding wires. They connect the silver colored pieces to the chip inside. When you hear "contain a lot of Gold" that means with a quantity of packages. With just a few (less than one pound), you probably won't yield enough Gold to see very well. Keep stocking up on the materials until you have enough to process. While you are doing that, you will have some time to read and learn the best ways to process each type of material. Don't just throw everything in a pot and add some AR and expect to get Gold. Each type of material is best processed separately by various means. Keep reading, you'll get it figured out!