General question regarding circuitry components.

[Kenshiro]

My grandfather who was an electrician in the navy would be rolling in his grave if he heard me asking such naive questions, but since I do not have the answers I humbly ask for the knowledge of these forums users.

I would like to experiment with a few dozen pounds of e-scrap and have some perhaps foolish notions that I may be better off without.

Components such as the small round cylinders and black chips- I do not know what these are called and have tried to find out to no avail. I am wondering if these have recoverable metal in them, if they should be separated from the mother and PCI boards, and if they can be processed separately when extracting metals.

I have heard the word 'miller' and mill stone used. I am wondering if this is a sort of mortar and pistil that can be used to crush these components to a point where their metals can be refined.

Also- if you are crushing things to dust, could you possibly grind circuit boards away to make the dissolving of gold that much easier?

Oh shoot. While we are at it; Is there gold sandwiched between the layers of circuitry- or is gold only plated onto the various pins and fingers?



Any reply is appreciated.

[KzScrapper]

I would suggest going thru most of the escrap section of the forum to find your answers and would caution you against grinding anything up without the proper breathing protection.

[injunjoe]

The small round cylinders are capacitors and contain dangerous chemicals.
Look for the member Samuel-a. In his signature there is a link to his web site, it will have the answers you seek.

[Kenshiro]

Ah, I see, I have already seen this website, though it is very well put together and informative. Definitely worth a review. I also recognize the intelligence of this forums users by their insistence of using PPE. It goes without saying I will take every precaution necessary when the time comes to refine, though the awareness displayed and suggested is appreciated.

[samuel-a]

Kenshiro

I think the most important thing for you to decide is, if you actually want to process something yourself or just sell it for a quick buck.

There are actually very few selected components that are worth dealing with in terms of recovering PM's yourself profitably. You will also need the proper setup.
Of course, if you remove them, the grading of your boards will be lowered at the yard.

I don't know if tha't allowed here, but i would strongly recommend you to spend a few days reading in the gold refining forum.

[parrothead]

We recomend the gold refining forum all the time. They are a forum of authority and beyond the scope of what we could cover here.

[Kenshiro]

Thank you Samuel. I have actually done quite a bit of reading at this point- to where I know of which equipment and methods I intend to use. Right now I am interested in collecting circuitry (Pending vehicle; common scrap like washing machines) and am curious as to if there is gold sandwiched between the circuits, which wouldn't change the extraction process at all.

[samuel-a]

am curious as to if there is gold sandwiched between the circuits, which wouldn't change the extraction process at all.

No sir, there isn't any practical reason for it to be there unless it is some kind of super high end board.... (i know non of these)
Some high greade computer cards have thin gold plating underneath the green slik screen, but definatly not found in any home appliances.

[Kenshiro]

I was beginning to figure that there would only be gold plating on exposed parts- no need for superior resistance to corrosion when covered in that green. As far as the circuits I have been collecting go; They have all been from computers. I took apart 1 dvd player and was disappointed as far as prospecting it went. I have about 3 computers right now- 2 are scrapped and the final one sort of houses the most valuable circuits. The rest of the boards are in a bag.

Would you know if perhaps there is a bit of gold underneath these boards silk screen, and if regular electroplating would remove it with no further steps?


*edit- I also have the screen circuits of 2 laptops- and the entire circuitry of 1 laptop. 1 Modem with unfortunately very little gold save for the pins.

[samuel-a]

Would you know if perhaps there is a bit of gold underneath these boards silk screen, and if regular electroplating would remove it with no further steps?

As i said... there might be.

In my opinion, it's not really worth the time even in a hobby scale...
The plating is flashed and it will probably won't be so convenient (to say the least) to strip in a cell.