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Salvaging gold from electronic parts

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  • 07-07-2009 3:36pm
    #1
    Overblood
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,359 ✭✭✭


    Is the gold used in computer parts worth a shyte? Would it be very low purity? I have two bits & pieces that may be gold, not sure. It behaves like gold ie it's very soft and really shiny, very nice to look at! (under a magnifying glass). The thing is my mate has a shedload of crap from all the years and it may have a few nuggets worth! Hopefully!


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    #2
    mattieb
    Registered Users Posts: 24 ✭mattieb


    What components would have the highest gold content, and how would you extract it?


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    #3
    Shiny
    Registered Users Posts: 2,259 ✭✭✭Shiny


    I remember seeing a short documentary about a company in
    Japan (I think) that extracts all the elements from used
    mobile phones.

    They had large pallets of gold, silver and other metals but I'm
    pretty sure they had to go through a couple of million phones
    before they got any useful amount.

    Conclusion, yes there is gold and other rare metals but the work
    required to do this manually on such a small scale is not worth it!


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    #4
    Gonzales24
    Registered Users Posts: 45 ✭Gonzales24


    i wouldnt say it isnt worth it...
    a frend of mine lives very good now, and he startet with that, in his own bathroom, in the bath, with chemicals wich seperates the metals from each other, dont know the real deal... he got the know-how from the books in the local library...
    he got a supplier and startet to work... there a lots of metal not just gold, but silver, platin and other. depending on the electronic. then he sold the metals to france, and drives a big car and lives in a big house now... :D


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    #5
    Slutmonkey57b
    Registered Users Posts: 5,560 ✭✭✭Slutmonkey57b


    Ya roysh.

    Yes there are precious metals in electronics.
    They are bonded to other materials, many of which are either naturally toxic or the process to seperate them is toxic. You'll only make money on an industrial scale, unless you're prepared to work in dangerous third world conditions and die young.


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    #6
    MotteDai
    Registered Users Posts: 242 ✭✭MotteDai


    Slutmonkey57b wrote: »
    Ya roysh.

    Yes there are precious metals in electronics.
    They are bonded to other materials, many of which are either naturally toxic or the process to seperate them is toxic. You'll only make money on an industrial scale, unless you're prepared to work in dangerous third world conditions and die young.

    Very true, I used to be an engineer in a wafer fabrication bussiness, chip making etc.. used a lot of gold and yes its best quality, however we used miniscule amounts. its all layered down using exceptionally toxic and complicated equipment, there was a guy in Galway once that used to do it but he used lots of acid baths etc.. and he got f**k al for a lot of work. it was years ago and envoirnmental licences were much less stringent. so agree with above, move to india and import old electronic by the tonne from west, perhaps the you may make a living, also it was always an objective to cut down and minimise use of precious metals so given its 2009 and yer man was at it in the 80's i'dsaay you'd have your work cut out.
    But good idea though, the greens would be all for it if you forgot to mention the extraction process..


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