disregard
- Large Scale Gold Extracting from PCBs
New Guy
Large Scale Gold Extracting from PCBs
disregard
Last edited by 2020GoldRush; 05-29-2020 at 05:10 PM.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Originally Posted by 2020GoldRush
You'll need about $500k worth of equipment and space, at least, to start, I would think. Then you would also need a steady and large supply of PCBs
See this vid on youtube, they are doing it at scale. Take notes of all the machinery they have/need. Forklifts, huge commmercial warehouse, large expensive equipment, etc. There are places in china/turkey that do it on even larger scale than this .
Last edited by kss; 05-29-2020 at 05:12 PM.
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I do enjoy watching gold refining videos but this topic is against forum rules because of the dangers involved.
Welcome to the forum.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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yea, the chemicals can kill you! If you need specifics on it, there are many gold refining boards and youtube video. But doing it at scale is like doing anything else at scale. Its a big undertaking and usually pretty expensive to just start doing something at scale. usually you start small and work up to the scale you need to.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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As with any other kind of investment .... timing is everything.
Just a guesstimate, but the ideal time to start up a refining operation would have been somewhere around thirty years ago ?
My sense of things is that chemical refining of PCB's is gradually giving way to a dry process that is more environmentally friendly.
Last edited by hills; 05-30-2020 at 06:33 AM.
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I believe a chemical process is still required at some point. My understanding is that pins and fingers are gold plated. The gold would need to be dissolved off of the base metal to be recovered.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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do u know the name of the company in Turkey that does this
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Good video but what a shame to see them destroying all those vintage computers....quite a market out there for certain vintage parts
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I totally agree. This material will need further processing.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I would agree. That would be especially so with processors, ram and gold plated connectors.
Printed circuit boards are a different situation. I was watching the "How It works" documentary and the information seemed awfully dated. They had all of these vintage computers, were tossing ribbon cable in the trash, and burning the boards in a furnace. It was posted to youtube in 2014 and the best info i could get from the IMDB was that it was probably filmed sometime around 2004.
There have been a lot of advancements in PCB recycling technology since then.
Slightly off topic, but check out this youtube chemical horror show from India. It gets particularly interesting about 3.15 minutes in. ( Posted to youtube on 10/28/2011 )
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I've seen many videos like this and it's a shame people have to work in these conditions. Some people have no choice and they're just trying to feed their families.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Unfortunately no. I had just heard at some point that turkey was overtaking China in Ewaste recycling. I do not know any specifics.
Did not see the video, as the link is already removed.
However, on a truly large scale PCBs are not processed by chemical means, ever! Chemical processing using acids is only done by small scale refiners.
The big processors are basically copper smelters. The main ones are Umicore (Belgium), Boliden (Sweden), Glencore (Canada), Metalor, Auribis (Germany), and a few others.
Boards are shredded, blended, copper content brought up to a minimum value if needed (often by adding higher grade copper scrap), then smelted. The copper acts as a collector for all precious metals. Copper is cast into anodes, and the electrolytically refined. The cathode copper is 99.9+%, ready to market. The precious metals fall to the bottom of the tank, called anode slimes. These are further refined into pure metals. All valuable metals are recovered, regardless of the type of board, etc. These processes are so efficient, there is simply no way to compete with any chemical process using acids, etc. Most places in China, India, Turkey, etc do not have this level of technology.
If you want to deal with these outfits directly, you need loads of about 40,000 lbs PCBs at a time, on a regular basis. Probably some of the bigger buyers on this forum use some of these outfits.
Last edited by aurum; 05-31-2020 at 12:36 AM.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I would love to see how it's done at the highest level.
Imagine the savings on shipping for the bigger buyers on the forum if they could pre-process the boards down to a semi-refined powder using a dry process.
It's not that simple... $500k is a drop in the bucket to get that type of operation running. To properly and competitively have a PM content recovery process at scale would have a cost of over $20,000,000... you still have to make payroll, do maintenance and have the cashflow to obtain the material and manage inventory... so add another $5 to $10mm.
Mind you the limited players in that space have absorbed the learning curve and continue to invest into R&D as material feed is constantly evolving.
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New Guy
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this is very interesting
seems like a lot of work
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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To do the scrapping or the refining?
Scrapmetal is mostly work, thats how you get your $$, you earn it. You take something & add value to it with your time & knowledge. Then sell it.
The more you know, the more efficient you can make it, the more $$ you get.
Actual escrap refining? Yep, it's a LOT of work, and intensive work with a huge knowledge curve & time & $$$ investment of many different steps & processes.
It's also very dangerous, to you, others & assets & your future.
On the other hand, escraps good work. You can do it at home in a shed of such. Dosnt require that many tools, it's safe(ish) & you can store it easily & for the $$ it doesn't take up that much room. A nice lump $um return too.
In time you can get contacts to get the stuff from & there's always potential for MTSV ( More Than Scrap Value)
And you will probably never have to buy a microwave again.
Last edited by eesakiwi; 06-12-2020 at 12:32 PM.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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And they are a 1 and done.......
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Someone watched a Moose The Scrapper video and got gold fever.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Ayuh ! They lose interest real fast once they figure out that it's not a get rick quick scheme.
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