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.

How to get out gold from old computer?

Do you really think that it is possible to get out gold from old PC?

If we talk about getting gold from old PC, it is crucial to understand recycling factor in the whole story. That means that you can't buy expensive computers and electronic parts to get out gold from them. Instead, you need to get cheap material for recycling. For that manner, we are saying Old PC and thinking about computers which don't worth someone as they are.

Gold price all around globe has become main reason for recycling gold from any source people can think about. Old Computers can be rich with gold content and that is why are they so much wanted recycling material. Keep in mind, not any PC component is worth with gold. Forget about power units or main housing components made from plastic. Make sure to collect all CPUs, motherboards, RAM modules and other components with gold plated connectors.

To get more secure way of doing this kind a job take a look at the documentary on NGC how people collect all kind of raw materials and how they extract gold. In most cases they need to use hazard chemicals so be careful and let the professionals do that step. All you need to do is to collect gold plated components, broke them apart and take them to recycling plant in your area.

It is possible to do it at your home if you know what are you doing, but still it is important to know how dangerous that process can be.

For those people who don't want to deal with chemicals it is better way to take their scrap to someone who can do it in a professional way with right equipment.

On my further posts I will show some other cool examples of gold hidden inside electronic devices. In that way you can see where to look for gold and how to make money from it. Don't throw away old electronic devices, keep them instead and sell their gold content.

Beside gold maybe you can find silver or some other noble metal.

Gold plated circuit board and chip

Have many old boards and chip inside? Don’t know what to do? Maybe it’s time to sell those for recycling gold from.

To make money by selling old Computer parts you need to find recycling corporation which can take gold and silver out of electronic circuits. Gold value of Computer Chips found on Motherboards & PCB Circuit Boards can be significant especially with these gold prices.

Mostly old circuit boards are heavy gold plated but still you can find gold in these new ones. I have showed you already example of gold plated Intel CPU 755 Socket processor. Depending on their age, computer electronics and cell phone electronic boards can also contain rich gold content made up of gold-plated circuit traces, edge fingers, connectors, Integrated Circuits, transistors, & memory chips.

If you don’t know how to take them apart and to recycle gold from them it is a good idea to take your electronic parts to recycling plant and to ask for fair price.

Electronics from old army equipment can be rich with gold parts, also aero and radar equipment and telecommunication devices as well.

Make sure to know how to recognize those parts so you know where to look for gold.

Some printer devices contain gold and you only need to take board out of them, not mechanical parts. If you find old phones or some other telecommunication equipment make sure to look for gold plated parts.