Why burning the ICs?

[Blue Moonshine]

I watched several tutorials in which people burn ICs for as long as 6 hours, before grinding them. It seems to me that they are spending a lot of energy, which might not be worth the return. In addition, this requires a furnace that not everybody has access to.

Why not simply crushing the ICs, and turning them in powder with a coffee grinder?

 

[galenrog]

The purpose of incinerating various types of IC chip is to remove carbon from the material, which gold in solution can easily cement to, causing recovery issues.

Time for more coffee.