boards

I have been looking at you tube concerning recycling
and a bottom line statement was a ton of boards has more silver or gold / platinum then a ton of ore from the ground. so even tv boards wile called low grade really are not

I know, it's very interesting the fact that these boards contain valuables..Copper Head, when you say up north, do you know of any place that will accept these items for cash?
Would be a great business venture, ppl. would give the stuff away for "green reasons"...

Upstate NY near Binghamton - There is a company here who recycles to a point of selling , not the actual take apart job. He gets .3 per lb intact tv's & shipping was paid.
But as business venture Getting rid of tubes legal would be the problem.
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What I see is interesting is how the companies doing this work must have tried to keep it under wraps as long as possible to get a foot hold in the market. Now it's coming to the public that regardless of the gold silver copper - the Mercury and lead in the appliances and E waste force trash companies not to take so we all need do our civic duties to recycle / which we must but I know the real money there making

Another thing to remember - while there may be more precious metals in a ton of circuit boards compared to in a ton of ore - there are still only small amounts of precious metals involved.

According to Striking Gold in Cell Phones | Urban Mining there is only 5 grams of gold in a ton of ore and 150 grams in a ton of cell phone boards (one of the most gold dense boards out there - low grade boards would yield considerably less). At current prices - that's $280.24 worth of gold in a ton of ore and $8,251.57 worth of gold in a ton of cell phone boards. Add up the overhead costs of shipping and storing and buying the boards and the e-waste buyers can be operating on razor-thin margins. Let a butterfly sneeze in China and the price of gold go down $100 overnight and it's a wonder they can even sleep.

Cell phone boards $10 plus a pound at 2000lbs ,thats over $20,000 a ton. I guess if you factor in the silver,copper,palladium,tantalum,and other pm on the boards in addition to the gold it might make sense ,but 150 grams of gold per ton seems low. Why would buyers pay so much if thats all there was.

Originally Posted by easyrecycle

Copper head let me tell you this from a recycling company point of few.

Yes there is money to be made....yes we can pay as much for desktop motherboards of $4+ dollars a pound or low grade motherboard for over 30cents a pound. But we have to send off a trailer load around 40,000 pounds to the refiner. It also costs us to ship the truck (over $1,200) on top of the refiner cost we have to PAY the refiner...they do not work for free..we also have to pay insurance, trucks, forklifts, fuel and we burn alot of that, building and land costs, pay the city off (tax and other things, and god forbid if someone gets hurt as that costs us a arm and leg!!

Reason why you need the scrap yards....the avg person is not going to save up 40,000 pounds to send off to a refiner to be refined. So....we buy it...stack it and then we sell it.

Right now...I am buying (or trying) to fill a new order from a refiner for low grade motherboards...around 70tons a MONTH...you don't fill it...you can have some issues and if you would like to take my chair your more than welcome.


P.s scrap steel hsm1 is worth around $350 a ton, the yard will only pay $220 or so a ton....

We are not in the market to brake even...we have to make money and pay our bills, sorry if I sound rude or something as I am really not trying to. But yes of course we are making money but to make it we have to spend a TON of money and we are taking a risk very day....you flip out when copper market drops because you have 10pounds...hell even 100pounds....we have copper in the TONS....it adds up fast and can sink a yard.

Ever thought of using the future market as a hedge?

I really hope this thread stays professional and does not turn into a battle of egos! I see both Easy and Ewasted as pros! It is why people from this forum highly recommend you two and others. If there is some clarification, both I am sure have different perspectives and experience, it may be best done away from the public forum.

I have learned much from both of you and many others have as well. I pray that each one is, and continues to be, very successful and an asset to all of us who meet you through the forum.

Have a great day, gentlemen. BroJer

Originally Posted by easyrecycle

I'm not going to keep going back and fourth with you. You seem to know better so maybe you should go find someone who is riding around in a small car scrapping steel as they are able to do what most people do in a pick up!

Its all about how you use your time and you equipment.

Right now...I am buying (or trying) to fill a new order from a refiner for low grade motherboards...around 70tons a MONTH...you don't fill it...you can have some issues and if you would like to take my chair your more than welcome. <<

that is 4600/lbs per day. every day.

even considering the weight ratio for a 4' cube, that is over 100 cubes. to do it right, you should be shredding on site. eliminating space requirements. get down to 60 or less.

initial cost of such a project would easily exceed 100k. cap rate would be around 7%. maybe. could be less. and all of that is totally dependent on being able to sustain a feed supply of 140,000 lbs per month.

the shipping costs alone will eat a lot of the return. i want to see how you handle the costs involved in getting the material to you. there are a lot of power supply/low grade boards on the market. tons of old crt/tv boards laying around. but the cost of moving those is what the problem has always been.

this would be a really top heavy venture. your expenditure rate is far higher than your return rate. you could wind up with a 3% or lower return. if you were moving a million a month, maybe. but if you had a million a month to play with, why would you deal in low grade.

of course there is another small problem. finding a processor that can move that much material per month.

ewasted is correct. 140,000 lbs per month is beyond the capabilities of almost all of the processors currently running. it is not a big secret.

but, in the spirit of helping you get this started, i am sure we have several tons of old junk boards. what would your price be picked up at the appleton, wi. dock.

This is a highly informative thread. Hats off to the buyers!

Originally Posted by rbrooks715

Right now...I am buying (or trying) to fill a new order from a refiner for low grade motherboards...around 70tons a MONTH...you don't fill it...you can have some issues
ewasted is correct. 140,000 lbs per month is beyond the capabilities of almost all of the processors currently running. it is not a big secret.

.

Seems Germany has a large facility can you sell over seas and still make a profit ?