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.

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.

Gold Recycling

Gold recycling process and precious metal recycling - All about recycling raw materials for getting gold and other precious metal.

What you need to know about precious metal recycling? Recycling process has been an experienced through past when buyer of precious metals have been buying copper and aluminum. Today, there are many companies buying these common precious metals like gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Also, these companies will most likely buy other rare precious metals. Prices are confirmed by world trading market locally and nationally. Give you a try and become a miner who can find gold in scrap most people just throw away.

Gold is number one precious metal in world trading circles. U.S. jewelry is usually found in 10k gold (.416%), 14k gold (.583%) and 18k gold (.750%). All these jewelry you can collect and extract pure gold from. If don’t know how, then it is better to collect them and sell to your local gold recycling dealer.

Silver is second most common precious metal you can find in jewelry. To produce silver from silver coins, silver jewelry, electrical silver contacts, sterling silver (92.5 % or .925 %) and other silver items make sure to collect raw material and give it to experts dealing with silver extraction.

Platinum jewelry and other platinum items you can sell also.

Other precious metal information – Along with gold and silver there is palladium which is well known precious metal known today. For palladium recycling just collect catalytic converters from most modern vehicles.

Exactly what is gold bullion?

Well, gold bullion, or silver bullion 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. People use these for determining amount of precious metal. The value of these bullions mainly comes from the precious metals in which they are made of. Value can be determined by bullion weight and its purity.

Unlike numismatic coins or jewelry, Gold Bullion does not have any sort of artistic component or value.

There are bullions available in different sizes and weight.