Hard Drive Breakdown Numbers

If their primary metal is alum. then you would be adding a large amount of extra alum. to the mix when their trying to pull out the precious metals. Nobody gets paid on the copper and alum. they pull out when they pay you for gold/silver.



You might as well just hand them the box full of platters for free.

Originally Posted by rawresale

Well, I thought about it this way:

If you are being charged per pound to process, say $1. I weighed a pound of platters really quick to be 22 to a pound. If what PTS was told is true, then we'll just take the minimum amount of platinum value at $0.25 per platter. This would mean that a pound of platters has at minimum $5.50 worth of platinum in them. Subtract $1 for processing fee, and you're left with $4.50 and I think the refiner gets some small percent of that too...seems worth it.

Where is you get that figure?? Here is a quote from Harold, a well respected member of the GRF and his take on pulling platinum from them.

Do you want my honest opinion?
Pursuing platinum from hard drives, thus far, equates to digging six foot deep holes by hand in an effort to recover a penny. The aluminum is worth far more than any traces of platinum that may be present, and it's not present in all discs. Seems to me that's one hell of a lot of work for nothing. Sell them for scrap and buy precious metals with the returns. You'll be glad you did.

At some point in time one must come to terms with the idea that you may be wasting precious time, time that could be far better used to further your cause.
Harold

Gold Refining Forum.com • View topic - Hard Drive Platters - how to attempt recovery?

OK the guy on the phone I talked to said he removes the film layer on the disks with a dremel. Then sends that in to be smelted/refined. It said that the film as its removed contains about 30% platinum by weight. He also explained to me that he wanted to get a furnace for himself so that he could just melt out the alluminum from the platters since the platinum has a much higher melting point. Said something to the affect of putting 100 spindles in at a time. Now what research I have been able to do so far tells me that a platter is about 2% platinum/palladium by weight. The trick is extracting it in a cost affective way. Ill let you know if anything comes of it. I just found it interesting is all.

Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

OK the guy on the phone I talked to said he removes the film layer on the disks with a dremel. Then sends that in to be smelted/refined. It said that the film as its removed contains about 30% platinum by weight. He also explained to me that he wanted to get a furnace for himself so that he could just melt out the alluminum from the platters since the platinum has a much higher melting point. Said something to the affect of putting 100 spindles in at a time. Now what research I have been able to do so far tells me that a platter is about 2% platinum/palladium by weight. The trick is extracting it in a cost affective way. Ill let you know if anything comes of it. I just found it interesting is all.

That is not going to work too well. When he you try to melt the aluminum it will lower the melting temp of the PD & PT and they will alloy with the aluminum.

I would remove the AL with HCL and then process the foils or melt them with silver as an accumilator and then process the silver and process the PT & PD slimes after that.

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

If their primary metal is alum. then you would be adding a large amount of extra alum. to the mix when their trying to pull out the precious metals. Nobody gets paid on the copper and alum. they pull out when they pay you for gold/silver.

You might as well just hand them the box full of platters for free.

I get paid for copper.

Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

I get paid for copper.

Yea but your special,,,,lol

The trick is extracting it in a cost affective way.

I hope it does work out for him, might open up another market for us all,,,