Quote Originally Posted by medal View Post
I've seen a number of different ways to remove gold from boards etc, but I'm going to try vinegar, salt and hydrogen peroxide, as it's all cheap and relatively safe. My question is, does it matter what the material is- plastic connectors with gold pins inside, chips, ribbon cable ends, gold fingers on boards? I've got about 6 different kinds, there's even gold in some kind of part attached to some carburetors, encased in plastic guide at awarefiners.co.uk. I'd like to just chuck it all in together, but I've seen so many different methods including grinding everything up and heating it in furnace, boards, chips and all. Any advice?
I am wondering why no one has tried to start a larger scale business to recycle used electronics, with a focus on metal separation and purification. On one hand you have small scale recyclers like yourselves (no disrespect at all, you guys are doing amazing things) and the informal recyclers in Guiyu, China and New Delhi, India and on the other hand you have the giant metal refineries like Umicore and Boliden. I am wondering why no one is trying to attack the middle. Some posters seem to have stated refining of e-scrap only works well at a large scale. Aren't the many small-scale recyclers globally a testament to this not being true? I'd appreciate it if people could explain to me their thoughts on this matter and why refining is seen as only being economical on a Billion Dollar Refinery level. Any thoughts on how we can deal with the global exponentially increasing supply of e-waste when only a small percentage of it is actually recycled and often the giant refineries can't get their hands on everything or are just breaking even?