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Originally Posted by
PartTimeScrapper
sounds like a topic for the gold refiner forums.
Sorta, i think that anything past that is definitely GRF territory though.
Its not really "refining" & its not much different from plain Gold panning & doesn't involve chemicals in any way so its on the SMF side of the SMF - GRF border.
I'm not in favour of refining, or using any chemicals in any way at all.
I have been there a long time ago & its quite very dangerous.
Its got a huge setup co$t, its very time involving with invasive ongoing co$t$. Low return even when experience is gained, at a large co$t too and the result has to be then made into a tradable form, independantly tested in a proper Laboratory assay testing house.
And then sold.
Its a lot lot easier to just process the
escrap into its grades, sell it & buy a standardized Gold coin with a known value.
Patnors method gets you Gold wires ( & probably Silver wires mixed in with them, maybe not ) out of a few Lbs of IC chips at home without much danger.
Enough to put into a tiny glass vial as a display or such demonstration.
Even melting those into a ball would be difficult without spending all of the return in a crucible.
Its not much different from collecting Silver electrical contacts & thats possibly more dangerous if the person is melting the solder backing to get the contacts off.
The reason?
I will write here because its a Safety Issue & not to be ignored.
Since the Solders quite possibly got Cadmium mixed with Silver and Cadmium is volatile & will evaporate with the heat & cool down in the air & get breathed in and/or settle out & its quite poisonous if inhaled or in skin contact.
I'm just using this opportunity to remind anybody who might be thinking of doing this.
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