Things you need to know about gold recycling

Why is it so attractive? Well the reason is that gold is high value noble metal, and the high cost of mining for gold gives us enough reason to recycle this noble metal.

According to the World Gold Council, recycled sources accounted for about 1,370 metric tons of gold in 2013, or roughly one-third of total global production. This is significant amount of gold in global scale, and it has diagram line keep going up and forward.

While recycling of gold jewellery is high dependent upon market conditions and prices for the metal, the electronics industry is a steady source of recyclable gold-containing waste. We all need to know that production process for making electronics needs gold without asking for price.

Computer circuit boards, cell phone boards, contact pins, integrated circuits and various other electronic components all contain minute amounts of gold that, if effectively collected, can be processed to extract gold as well as other precious and base metals. Gold is gold, whoever use it and it has value depended on global market status.

Once electronic or other gold-containing scrap material is collected, it must be pre-processed in order to remove unwanted parts that are often made with plastic and composite materials, which could affect the chemical recycling process.

The next step is to identify and sort material depending on purity and the presence of certain impurities, particularly hazardous or regulated substances.

Proper identification of materials and recognition of composition is critical not only to ensuring that the recycling process is profitable, but also those hazardous materials such as cadmium or mercury are properly treated and disposed.

Gold contained in electronic waste is often categorized as:
Very high grade - gold content with a minimum of 400ppm
High grade - gold content with a minimum 200ppm
Medium grade - gold content with a minimum of 100ppm
Low grade - gold content with a minimum content of 50ppm
Very low grade - gold content with a maximum content of 50ppm
Methods of sorting include spectrometry analysis, sample taking and electrolysis.

Assays are produced that indicate the quantity and purity of gold as well as any other credits for precious metal like silver or platinum. The assay is used to settle accounts between suppliers and the recycling facility.

Depending on the form, grade and composition of the source material, gold can be recovered through various methods. These are expertise and you should leave them to the experts.

Just to mention each one, keep reading this article:
Burning with high heat can isolate gold from the other components. This method is very simple in that the gold can be collected while other un-wanted materials are burned off as fumes. However, the presence of toxic and heavy metals in many electronics can make this a dangerous method and, so, it is rarely used in commercial operations.
Cyanide leaching is one of the easiest, most cost effective and toxic methods for extracting gold. The process involves immersing the electronic devices in a solution containing cyanide. Cyanide is element which interacts with gold, forming gold ions, which can then be distilled into gold dust or gold powder. The powder can then be collected and melted into gold bullion at near 99 percent purity. This method is often employed in developing countries, as a cheap and quick way to extract valuable gold from electronic components. Health and environmental concerns spurred by the use of cyanide leaching in developing countries have resulted in the Basel Convention addressing the trans-border movement of electronic waste.
Aqua regia is a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids. These acids have the ability to dissolve gold. Nitric acid reacts with gold to oxidize and strip it from other metals like silver, copper, and nickel, allowing these to be collected for recycling. In order to stop the oxidizing process and precipitate the gold from the mixture, hydrochloric acid must be added. Now, the gold molecules can be collected and filtered. The recovered gold is washed with acetone and water before being cast as solid gold.
A more complicated method to recover gold involves reverse electroplating. This process involves creating an electrolytic cell in order to 'win' back gold via electrolysis, effectively reversing the process of electroplating the gold onto the electronic component.

Use scrap for recycling gold

Gold is an essential element in the production process of contemporary electronic devices. This sentence applies for devices manufactured eighties and thereafter also. What's more, the greater quantity of gold content can be found in older devices. This is because production technology today is much more precise an accurate which means that gold consumption is effectively reduced.

Accuracy in making electronics has led to the fact that gold can be used in the best possible (cost-effective) ratio and with less scrap. This is the main reason why the older devices contain larger amounts of gold or other precious and valuable metals.

Difference in-between older CPU’s and these new ones show us how gold is reduced in production level. In fact, old processors that are used in personal computers in the late eighties and early nineties contain a significantly greater amount of gold from these newer generations’ processors. So we have one processor 486 marks in itself can hide from 0.1 to as much as 0.5 grams of gold per unit, and its multi-core processors are barely worth recycling.

Text above can apply for almost every electronic device.

Recycling is good for the preservation of planet earth. Recycling process is a lot cheaper than gold mining.

To produce new electronic devices and sell them, we need to replace some old but used ones. In this circle, recycling is essential.

Recycling old electronic waste is not easy, but if it is understood as a going up business it is not so risky and it should last a while. Raw materials for recycling are all kind of electronic devices. Gold is hidden inside them and just wait to be extracted.

Before recycling process collected material should be examined first. Separation must be taken and when separation is done, we can start to prepare recycling cycle.

When all the materials are grouped we can start by recycling parts of gold, or gold-plated parts. Gold is, in most cases, applied as a thin layer on base metal, and only in rare cases as pure gold.

Recycling process is dangerous, and so, in this step you have to be careful. While recycling, it is necessary to use an acid, and therefore you must be familiar with some basic rules. The space in which you work with should be properly ventilated, and airy. You must use a suit which protects against possible contact with the acid, goggles and rubber gloves. The entire process of extracting gold should be done with tools specially prepared for use in laboratories. Container in which the gold is melted and set aside should be made of glass.

Gold recycling part which you want to recycle should be worked out in a mixture of two acids called aqua regia. Name (aqua regia) comes from fact that it melts gold.

Aqua regia is media for extracting gold from other metals and keeping that gold trapped inside. After you have dissolve that gold it is time to collect it and take it out.

To make the gold back from the current media solution you need a little trick. Trick is called sodium metabisulfite. It is a white powdery substance that interacts with aqua regia and the gold atoms have led out of the liquid. Reaction inside aqua regia has a gold powder for result.

How to get pure gold? We will explain later.