Basics about how to recycle electronic waste to get gold

How Gold Is Recycled is the question many people asking. In this post we will explain some basics about recycling process.

To get gold out of electronic scrap this is the first step - First thing you need to do is to sort out your waste in a way to know where to look for a gold materials. This step is important because it tells you exactly what percentage of the material contains valuable metals. Scrap containing gold is placed on a scale. This way you can weight and calculate amount of gold you can expect. By sorting electronic waste you have components that are disassembled and sorted based on their type. A detailed record is kept of what materials are present. Any valuable pieces are recorded. Because many recycled items also contain hazardous materials, these are also sorted. Environmentally harmful substances such as mercury are isolated and sent away for proper disposal. Once all valuable components have been sorted and weighed, they are ready for smelting.

Next thing to do in case of recycling is to melt gold plated components. Gold plated elements that can be recycled are melted using very high and controlled heat. This process is called "smelting." The metal turns to liquid as it is heated past its melting point. Gold is often mixed with other substances when used in electronics and other sources of scrap metal. Once it has melted into liquid form, however, it can be separated. Each metal has unique properties and densities. Smelting equipment uses these differences to separate and refine any metal of value.

Step three do final gold recycling step - Once you have made gold and other metals are melted, they can be re-formed as needed. The refined metal is shaped and cooled into standard sizes and weights. These gold units can then be re-used. Gold processing centers distribute the refined metal to factories to use as needed. Because of the refining and packaging process, recycled gold is as useful as the day it was mined, and can be used in electronics or jewelry once again.

Recycling of gold - In depth analysis

Main benefit of gold recycling is that it does not lead to degradation in quality. This means that gold that was mined thousands of years back is just as good as that mined yesterday. It is possible to recycle this gold and repurpose it without requiring any new mining.

Electronic wastes these days form the biggest source of gold that should be recycled. As we dump any kind of electronics like televisions, iPads, iPhones and other classy gadgets, we are throwing away gold. These can be recycled to get fresh gold that can then be used to make other new gadgets.

This amount of gold is huge. Not much gold that has ever been mined has been lost. In fact, it is only 3,600 tons that cannot be accounted for of all the gold mined. The rest of the gold, roughly 167,700 tons, is still traceable. Roughly a half of this has been used in making jewelry while the rest is safely locked in central bank vaults. These are used for making products like dental fillings and iPhones and others are held by investors.

As of 2012, the total amount of gold recycled or reused was less than 3% of the total supply of gold. If only 5% of the total existing gold could be recycled, the world demand for gold would have been met a long time ago.

Find out the benefits of gold recycling

First thing we want to mention is environment protection - Today, gold is mined using Open Pits Methods. The methods involve excavating as well as blasting huge holes on the surface of the earth. Surprisingly, only 10g of gold can be got from a ton of rock. This means that the potential for environmental degradation is massive when gold is mined and not recycled.
No toxic substance - Using cyanide in gold mining is a big cause for worry for environmentalists. This is because the compound is highly toxic not just to animals but humans alike. Recycling does not need any of cyanide, which means there is less toxic substances to people and wildlife. It is defined as gold that has been previously refined and it comes from many places including post-consumer products, gold-bearing products, scrap and waste metals and other sources. The origin of recycled gold is considered to be the point in the gold supply chain where the gold is delivered to the refiner or recycler.

Since refineries often collate gold from multiple sources it has been very difficult to reliably trace the source.

Sources of Gold for Recycling - Gold is used to create jewelry and coins, as dental fillings and bridges and in industrial and electronic applications. Gold jewelry and coins are often recycled through brick-and-mortar dealers or mail-in programs that pay individuals for the unwanted gold. Gold recycled from fillings and other dental work is often collected by dentists and sent to a recycler. Significant quantities of gold are found in catalytic converters and circuit boards, which can be recycled by municipalities or commercial collectors.

Recycling Jewelry and Coins - The first step in recycling gold jewelry and coins is sorting out the purities of gold, measured in karats, with 24 karats representing pure gold. The quantity of impurities can be assayed with an acid kit, electronic tester, X-ray fluorescence spectrometer or melting point test. Once the gold is sorted, it will be melted in a crucible at around 1,064 degrees Celsius (1,947 degrees Fahrenheit) and either poured into bars marked by purity, or further smelted to remove impurities. Smelting is a process where impurities are burned off, or a flux is added to react with impurities and separate them from the pure metal.

Recycling Electronics - Recycling gold from industrial and electronic waste is less straightforward because the gold is embedded in a metal or plastic housing and may only be two percent by weight. Once the pieces containing the precious metal have been stripped, several options exist for processing. The first is chemical stripping with a compound that reacts with the gold. The second option is to melt down the metal components, cool them and grind them up. Both processes require further extraction and purification through smelting.

Dental Gold Recycling - The gold found in pulled or discarded fillings, bridges and casting molds can be collected by dentists and sent to a recycler. The purity of dental gold is usually 16 karat, but it is slightly more complicated to recycle than jewelry because it may include nonmetal content like tooth enamel or porcelain. The recycler will use a process like acid reduction or reverse electroplating to extract the gold from the nonmetal elements. The extracted gold can then be formed into bars or further refined.

How much gold you can find inside smart phones and computers?

There is significant amount of gold in consumer electronics. It is on you to find it and start recycling process.

Mostly we picture copper when thinking about how electricity is conducted, probably because it is the most common conductor. Silver is actually the best conductor, followed closely by gold. Yes you read it right, Gold is better conductor than copper is. Copper is cheaper than precious metals, but it’s also much slower in transporting electrons than its glamorous siblings. In the world of computing and communications, speed is more important than cost, which means that copper remains relegated to construction and pennies.

And as fast a conductor as silver is, it corrodes or tarnishes easily whenever it comes in contact with water, even with humid air. Corrosion is one of the things we don’t want inside our electronic devices.

Gold, on the other hand, is highly corrosion-resistant. In short word explanation - Gold is not as fast as silver, but it doesn’t fall apart like silver and is many times faster than copper. It is a best choice in producing precise electronic devices.

To learn more about gold and how it is removed from discarded devices, we are going to write a few words about using Gold in electronics and how to recycle those for getting it back

How much gold is in a smart phone? In very rough numbers, there are 10 troy ounces of gold, or about three-fifths of a pound, per ton of smart phones. Ten thousand phones weigh one ton. With gold selling for about $1,580 per ounce, that would yield $15,800.

How much gold we can find in laptop? Two hundred laptops would yield five troy ounces of gold. How much is in an average desktop? A PC circuit board, where the gold is, weighs about a pound. If you had a ton of those boards, you should have 5 troy ounces of gold. Are there manufacturers that use more gold than others? Computer makers don’t make their circuit boards because they are commodity items. They buy them from third parties. The trend in using gold among all of those companies is definitely down. It’s a costly material, so they are looking for more efficient ways to make the boards, trying to use as little gold as possible.

How long does it take to get all the gold out? Individuals can take apart a smart phone easily by hand, but the volume of gold is going to be small. It’s not uncommon for a developing nation to accept all kinds of trash from developed nations, including electronics, in return for cash. Local entrepreneurs typically burn circuit boards and use cyanide on the ash to separate the gold. That’s not what anyone would call a green process, but it is a cottage industry because it gets the job done reasonably inexpensively. Some companies are using a mechanical process, shredding computer components to quarter-inch bits to liberate the plastic, aluminum, steel, gold and other materials to create commodity streams. Magnets grab the steel. Eddy currents are used to propel non-ferrous metals, including precious metals, from plastics.

Is shredding computers the best way to get at the gold? There are lots of interesting ideas for technologies that could possibly be better, but it’s hard to compete against developing nations that are manually breaking things down, often in environmentally unfriendly ways. Doing it almost any other way to protect the environment is going to be more expensive.

Do you really think that it is possible for you to get Gold in PC?

Well, these days, most of the things that you thought to be impossible are now possible. If you would like to get if you Gold in PC, it is totally possible these days. It is all about recycling gold from personal computer and even another computer scrap. These days, Gold in PC could be taken by taking apart the old computer that you have at home and make it sure that you could get rid of all the parts without any gold content within. Make it certain that you only need the components.

Mineral processing operation is one of the complex things to do in Nevada, as it uses roasting in each treatment that they use. At some point, Jerritt Canyon has been designed into the process of mild refractory and oxide gold ores by those of the traditional cyanidation making use of chlorine gas for per-oxidation of those refractory ores. In the year 1989, the roasting circuit has been added into the procedure for the treatment of those highly refractory ores that are now being processed and mined at the Jerritt Canyon. With such, the unit operations at Jerritt Canyon plant for the processing are being composed with different circuits.

Why don’t you consider taking apart the old computers that you have and make it sure that you get rid of the entire parts without even any sort of gold content within. You would only need the CPU, the motherboard cards, and the motherboard. The gold inside it has to be recycled. When you have already collected all of these parts, you should all take them apart and then collect any sort of golden particles within. For instance, if you would like to recycle your RAM stick, it would be essential for you to get rid of those golden pins right from the bottom of the stick.

If you would like to get gold in PC, you can try to recycle the network card. However, just make it sure that you cut off all of the pins that goes out into the PCI slot or with some other slot depending upon the kind of motherboard in which you are recycling. Once you have already separated the parts with the gold on it, ensure that you only get them all into a certain glass dish and prepare the aqua regia solution, which is a mixture for the extraction of gold. You can definitely use it, but you must be very aware that it is a hazardous kind of acids.

Some of the other people could actually make out a good kilo of gold from those of the broken and old personal computers. The sources for this value have to be big and yet a possible one. Gold is definitely hidden inside the components of the computer and there are just a lot within the motherboard. By mainly knowing a much better knowledge about gold, it could be easily extracted from the sources. The recycling procedure for the gold recycling is not a simple task and it has to be taken as a serious matter, most especially if you are thinking about on how to recycle gold.

Why do you think there is gold inside the motherboards?

Well, unlike the copper gold, it is an expensive kind of metal and there is definitely no need of real explanation about using god gold instead of taking copper. The motherboards have their copper within, yet Gold is also present in it as well. However, what is that supposed to mean? Well, with the fact that Gold is a noble kind of metal, it only means that it would never oxidize on the open air. Thus, it makes it a better component to use. This is one of the reasons why gold are being used for making out motherboards.

Gold is definitely a precious kind of metal. With such, everyone is thinking about how people are able to recover these gold pieces from the broken as well as old electronic materials. For most of the cases, the printed kind of circuit boards has simply the highest yield of this gold. Thus, you should know the differences between those of the low grade and higher grade kinds of boards. Keep in mind that the low grade kind of board doesn’t really contain gold in amount that you could find inside the high grade kind of boards. The main different between such boards is the amount of gold that they have.

If you think you have wide amount of electronic waste materials, it would be a good deal for you to start recycling gold and any other precious materials from these things. The process of recycling could be a little dangerous for the reason that it isn’t really worth a try without any sort of enough electronic waste materials. If you consider start using up small picks as well as tweezers, you should strip the entire metal out from the board. Keep in mind that this metal has a gold content and other kind of precious metals inside. The amount of these metals that you could find could be a little hard to separate using bare hands.

Some other methods for recycling could be a little less dangerous, yet they could not be that effective as well. It actually depends upon your knowledge and skills for such type of job and on what kind of method you are using. The places for finding all of the gold besides the PC boards could be with cell phones and they could be a good source of gold. The cellphones are mainly another thing wherein you could find these precious metals and somewhat easy to find since people often changes these devices. Mobile phones could be easy to recycle and there’s not much of waste and handling that would be easier than handling old motherboards.

Do you have any idea about what gold bullion is?

Well, it is actually a valuable kind of precious metal, which is mostly made from either silver or gold. Such gold bullions actually come in two main forms like coins, bars and others. The value of these bullions mainly comes from the precious metals in which they are made of. Unlike those of the numismatic coins or jewelry, Gold Bullion does not have any sort of artistic component or value. There are bullions available in different sizes and its weight could be in between kilos or grams. Well, bar would always be heavier.

In this post - explaining how to recycle gold - you will be working with basic house hold chemicals

This is in detail, step by step process of turning old electronic parts into little round lumps of pure gold.

This process should never be attempted indoors.

In this post - explaining how to recycle gold - you will be working with basic house hold chemicals. By themselves these chemicals can be fairly harmless. The combination of such chemical which will be presented in this post can be extremely hazardous. By such there are a couple of safety items which are not optional.
The follow items are required. Be aware of risk and take these safety measures.
Breathing equipment - You will need a chemical mask rated AT LEAST as a P100. If you don’t know what a P100 rating means please don’t be lazy and find out. It is for your own safety.
Heavy duty Gloves - PVC or rubber is fine, do not use Latex or Nitrile gloves.
Safety Glasses - Any pair will work as long as It is safety rated and solvent rated.
Helpful items which can make doing these experiments easier.
Borosil glass labware.
2 and a 1/2 gallon bucket.
1 gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom - to be used as a strainer.
60 ounce pickle jar
Coffee filters
Filter holder from a coffee machine.
Spray bottle.
Mini scale measuring Grams and Ounces.
Some pipettes and test tube.
1 gallon of Clorox Bleach, or Sodium hypochlorate at 6%
Muriatic Acid  34% HCL ~ Baume.
Hydrogen Peroxide  - 3%  but no greater than 5%
Stumpout by Bonide, or Sodium bisulfate - 99.9% as specified in the Msds or Sodium Meta Bisulfite.
You cannot substitute these chemicals. Trying to do so will not give the required reactions. You want your materials to be as clean as possible with the least Amount of Garbage as possible.

Gold fingers are typically found on PCI cards, ISA cards, or on Memory sims/dimms/etc.  They create the corrosion free connection between the computer and the expansion card. This process can also be used to recover gold from CPU such as Pentium Pro, or Cyrix or older 486 and lower generation chips. Objective of this first chemical bath is to remove a large majority the base metals, Such as nickel, zinc and copper. After cleaning and removing your plated sections of computer parts, remove any visible capacitors transistors, or other components. Be sure to also remove any steel or iron parts attached.  These metals can foul the reaction causing poor results.

Tools you will using
100 ML beaker, 1 gallon bucket, 2 1/2 gallon bucket.
Chemicals you’ll need
Muriatic acid, and hydrogen peroxide.
Materials you are looking to recover.
First step, place your 1 gallon strainer bucket, into your 2 1/2 gallon wash bucket.  But first place your parts to be recovered inside your 1 gallon strainer bucket. Add enough muriatic acid to cover your fingers about 1 cm above your materials. Keep track of how many MLs are added. You want to keep your waste Acids to a minimum.  Second, to activate the solution you want to add your Hydrogen peroxide 3 - 5% solution in a 2 to 1 ratio. Take two parts muriatic acid to one part hydrogen peroxide. After the Peroxide has been added to your muriatic acid the mixture should start to bubble, and the base metals should begin to dissolve. At this point you should be wearing your safety gear because a few unfriendly fumes are being released. This process can take up to 24 - 48 hours. This works best at the temperatures of 80 - 90 F.
When this has been completed you will see a batch of gold foils floating in your now dark green acid.
Items required
Coffee filters
Filter holder
60oz pickles jar, or glass container large enough to contain waste acids.

Simply poor the contents of the two gallon bucket into the pickle jar using the coffee filters to catch any foils that are floating on the surface of the acid. Once you have poured off all the acid you will be left with a pile similar to what is in the picture. Scoop these from the bucket into another container for future processing.

Congratulation you are about 50% finished.

HEALTH WARNING

Melting at this stage may lead to the following health hazards.
Zinc - Inhalation of zinc oxide fumes can occur when welding or cutting on zinc-coated metals. Exposure to these fumes is known to cause metal fume fever. Symptoms of metal fume fever are very similar to those of common influenza. They include fever (rarely exceeding 102o F), chills, nausea, dryness of the throat, cough, fatigue, and general weakness and aching of the head and body. The victim may sweat profusely for a few hours, after which the body temperature begins to return to normal. The symptoms of metal fume fever have rarely, if ever, lasted beyond 24 hours. The subject can then appear to be more susceptible to the onset of this condition on Mondays or on weekdays following a holiday than they are on other days.
Beryllium - Beryllium is sometimes used as a alloying element with copper and other base metals. Acute exposure to high concentrations of beryllium can result in chemical pneumonia. Long-term exposure can result in shortness of breath, chronic cough, and significant weight loss, accompanied by fatigue and general weakness.
Mercury - Mercury compounds are used to coat metals to prevent rust or inhibit foliage growth (marine paints). Under the intense heat of the arc or gas flame, mercury vapors will be produced. Exposure to these vapors may produce stomach pain, diarrhea, kidney damage, or respiratory failure. Long-term exposure may produce tremors, emotional instability, and hearing damage.
Lead - Inhalation and ingestion of lead oxide fumes and other lead compounds will cause lead poisoning. Symptoms include metallic taste in the mouth, loss of appetite, nausea, abdominal cramps, and insomnia. In time, anemia and general weakness, chiefly in the muscles of the wrists, develop. Lead adversely affects the brain, central nervous system, circulatory system, reproductive system, kidneys, and muscles.
Cadmium - Cadmium is used frequently as a rust-preventive coating on steel and also as an alloying element. Acute exposures to high concentrations or cadmium fumes can produce severe lung irritation, pulmonary edema, and in some cases, death. Long-term exposure to low levels of cadmium in air can result in emphysema (a disease affecting the ability of the lung to absorb oxygen) and can damage the kidneys. Cadmium is classified by OSHA, NIOSH, and EPA as a potential human carcinogen.

Disposing your waste acids - Place your acid in a separate container, label these bottles as CLCu2 with a black sharpie marker. Under that write may also contain trace amounts of NICKLE and ZINC, BERYLLIUM, CADMIUM and LEAD. You can take these items to your local hazard roundup or recycle your acids with a method you prefer.
DO NOT dump your acids down the drain or on the ground. It is IMPORTANT to be responsible with wastes.

Amassing story comes from Apple and includes gold

Many relevant web portals writing about Apple and gold recycling process this company is using.

Did you know that Apple recovered one ton of gold by recycling iPhones just in one year?

By stripping down old iPhones, iPads and Macbooks, Apple recovered huge quantities of precious metals. Apple has revealed it reclaimed almost one metric tonne of gold by recycling its own products in 2015. At current prices, that's equivalent to around £28 million worth of gold. This is not quantity you can expect by collecting electronic devices but it could be good motivation story.

These valuable materials were reclaimed through the Apple Renew scheme, which lets customers hand in their worn-out Apple devices in exchange for money off future Apple purchases. Some of the recycling is done by Apple's line of prototype 'Liam' robots, which are designed to take apart old Apple devices while detecting and separating their valuable elements. Electronics companies don't put gold in their devices just to be extravagant - the metal is used in computer components because it's an excellent conductor, and doesn't tend to corrode or oxidize in the same way as copper or aluminum. The Environmental Report also revealed other areas in which Apple is trying to reduce its carbon footprint - the sleek packaging for the iPhone 6S is 20 per cent lighter and 34 per cent smaller than the box the first-generation iPhone came in. Additionally, all of the company's data centers - which power services like iMessage, Siri and FaceTime - run on renewable energy, and Apple's carbon emissions have fallen every year since 2011, from 137.2kg of CO2 per product to 114.2 in 2015.

These reports could give us a clue of gold quantity inside Apples devices. If you are thinking of this business seriously take a time to calculate worth of old Apples devices. Hope you will find this post interesting and useful for starting gold recycling business.

Till then take a look at posts posted earlier
Make your own Gold recycling business
Gold inside CPU
Learn how to melt gold powder and get button