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How would one go about removing the gold, silver and copper content out of a cell phone?

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posted on Oct, 27 2011 @ 08:48 AM
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Originally posted by Vorlon128
...Try to build a machine that separates liquids from solids.


I'm gonna try to get right on that after I finish my flux capacitor.


I'm honored that you have so much faith in my abilities.

Peace



posted on Oct, 27 2011 @ 10:03 AM
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Originally posted by tamusan
It's far easier and more productive to find the right spot of earth and dig it out (legally). We had a few week phase when we tried to salvaged precious metals from scrap electronics. As was said above, you need many tons of scrap electronics to make a profit.


While that may be true in certain locations on this planet (which, by the way, are most likely already claimed), for the most part the best locations you'll find would probably assay out to .50 troy ounces per ton of microfine gold, which will include a plethara of other metals, including uranium, arsenic, lead, and mercury - all of which are toxic.

E-waste refining on the other hand will load out to about 3 troy ounces of gold per ton, that's 24kt, not the microscopic gold you'll have to leach and then percipitate to get at best 22kt, and that after refining at least three separate times.

We're not even talking about the platinum, palladium, ruthenium, iridium, indium, silver, and copper that also comes with e-waste recycling



posted on Oct, 27 2011 @ 10:23 AM
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reply to post by Dr Love
 


There are metal refiners that specialize in this. One is in Anaheim (Name of Eagle or something)?
It might be easier in the long run to sell the electronic scrap to them.



posted on Oct, 27 2011 @ 10:57 AM
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Is the precious metal in electronics just a coating or is it solid?

What kinds of chemicals would be used to do the separation?

Peace



posted on Oct, 27 2011 @ 12:04 PM
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reply to post by Dr Love
 


Unmicore are one of the bigger WEEE recyclers in Europe and they sell the precious metals they reclaim as ingots www.proaurum.de... so you can reclaim quite a bit, but you do need volume on your side to do so.

Here is a link to the overall process they use to reclaim the various different metals etc from WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) there are links describing the individual processes in slightly more detail on their site. www.preciousmetals.umicore.com...

I can't find the detailed info your asking for on the actual separation process, but I will see if I have it somewhere on my network.
edit on 27/10/11 by thoughtsfull because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 27 2011 @ 12:11 PM
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I collect copper, brass and aluminum.

When I go to the shooting range I always pick up spent casings. Some I will use to reload my own bullets. The rest gets separated into separate buckets, steel, brass and aluminum. Then, I will also go down range(if I can) and start picking up the bullets and the copper jackets that get torn to pieces after hitting the plinkers. I make fairly decent money with this when I take it to the recyclers. I will also separate the lead from the copper by cooking it and turning the lead into ingots.

I usually fill my brass buckets up faster than the others but a 5 gallon bucket of brass cases usually nets me 125 bucks.
edit on 27-10-2011 by Skewed because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 27 2011 @ 12:29 PM
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Originally posted by Skewed
When I go to the shooting range I always pick up spent casings.


A lot of ranges won't let you do that now.........for reasons given to them by a certain gun-running lawyer I'm sure.

Peace



posted on Oct, 27 2011 @ 12:38 PM
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reply to post by Dr Love
 


I do not have that problem.
Only issue I have is that another member of the range seems to think that the casings that hit the ground is theirs. They get a little pissy when they see me picking it all up and stuffing a couple of bags full.



posted on Oct, 27 2011 @ 12:48 PM
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Reply to post by Dr Love
 


That's easy, send it to your e-waste depot, they sell it to places like oh say China. They have a lot of low tech "facilities" there to extract our garbage for us.


 
Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com
 



posted on Oct, 27 2011 @ 12:51 PM
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reply to post by Skewed
 


Last place I was at, there had to be tens of thousands on the ground, and they wouldn't let you touch them. Um...I was there for their great Slurpees BTW.

Peace



posted on Oct, 27 2011 @ 01:51 PM
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reply to post by Dr Love
 


Are you not even allowed to police your own brass?



posted on Oct, 27 2011 @ 01:59 PM
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Originally posted by Skewed
reply to post by Dr Love
 


Are you not even allowed to police your own brass?


Nope. You could if they weren't looking I guess, but if they see you they go ballistic (pun intended).

Peace



posted on Oct, 27 2011 @ 06:23 PM
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Chemistry likely offers the best solution. Stripping with certain acids and likely doing some other reduction followed by a thermal or electrical process for the final separation. A lot of nasty chemicals though, so probably not all that environmentally friendly if not kept under strict control.

However in reality it's much more profitable to go looking for metals like copper at abandoned or neglected properties. Electronics have such tiny amounts of valuable materials. As where things like structures may not have as valuable materials, but they're in bulk quantity which adds up price-wise. Which explains why illegal stripping happens as much as it does.

Also leaves me wondering why recycling facilities and scrapyards don't come under the same scrutiny as pawn shops do for transactions involving similar cash amounts. (Then again, lawmakers tend to be obtuse blockheads more often than not. They'll come up with some supposed solution that can't be enforced in any effective manner or in a way that punishes everybody trying to do legitimate business.)



posted on Oct, 28 2011 @ 02:05 AM
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Having had a look around, there are a number of sources that define the process but the ones I have are all on the industrial scale, so have had a look around for you and found this on the net.


Instructions
1 Start by obtaining as many scrap electronics components to reclaim gold from. Generally speaking, older electronics work better because enhanced manufacturing processes use less gold than older electronics, so an old 386 or 486 computer, for example, contains more gold than a modern computer. Old analog cell phones also contain more precious metal than newer digital phones. Of course, new electronics also have gold that can be refined, but never turn away old equipment.

2 Cut all of the gold-plated components out of the electronics. You do not want to waste your time treating the entire motherboard of a computer when all of the gold is plated on the connector pins, processors and or chips. Cut all of the gold-plated components off the circuit boards. Do not throw the boards away though, because there is still silver and other precious metals you may wish to reclaim later.

3 Prepare yourself for working with chemicals. You will be using one chemical process to remove the gold plating and another chemical process to refine the gold to pure 24k fine gold. Working with chemicals means taking safety precautions to prevent chemical burns and to block out toxic fumes. You should wear a rubber apron and thick rubber gloves any time you are handling chemicals. You should also wear a respiratory mask similar to what asbestos workers wear and a face shield to protect against splashing.

4 Make an electrolyte for your reverse electroplating process. The electrolyte is a solution that acts as a chemical bath for your precious metal, as well as a conductor of electricity. Make the electrolyte by pouring a mixture of 70 percent sodium cyanide (NaCN), 15 percent sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and 15 percent sodium meta nitro benzene sulphonate. Carefully pour these ingredients into a glass chemistry beaker and stir them with a glass wand.

5 Set up your power source so that it will be ready to be connected. Take two pieces of wire and strip about an inch of insulation off of the ends with a pair of wire strippers. On each piece of wire, connect a small alligator clip to one end of the wire. Connect the other end of the wire to a 9- or 12-volt battery. Use the large square batteries with spring-like posts on top. Connect one wire to the negative post and one wire to the positive post.

6 Prepare the anode. Take the wire that is connected to the positive post on the battery. Clip the alligator clip from that wire onto the gold plated scrap from your electronics. You may only be able to do small amounts at a time, but you can keep everything running in a continuous cycle for as long as the battery still has power. Once the alligator clip is connected to the electronics scrap, drop the scrap into your beaker of electrolyte solution.

7 Prepare the cathode. The remaining wire is attached to the negative terminal on the battery. Attach the alligator clip from this wire onto a piece of stainless steel. It will be easier to work with if the steel is in a cylinder shaped rod, shaped like a pencil, but any piece of stainless steel will work fine. Once the steel has been attached to the alligator clip, lower it into the solution. Your electric circuit is not active.

8 Wait it out. The battery will be charging your electronics scrap with a positive charge and the stainless steel with a negative charge. The electrolyte solution you made will dissolve the gold from the scrap, and the positive charge in the gold will cause it to attract to the negatively charged steel. All of the gold in the electronics scrap will form onto the steel, where it can be peeled off and set aside until you have enough to refine.

9 Mix a refining solution. Although you have recovered the gold from the electronics scrap, it may not be pure gold. It may be 12k or 18k gold, so now we will refine it to be pure 24k fine gold. Take a second beaker and pour it half full of Aqua Regina. Be very careful. Aqua Regina will burn through human tissue, so wear thick rubber gloves and take proper safety precautions.

10 Refine the gold. Drop the gold into the Aqua Regina, then fill the beaker the rest of the way with sodium meta bisulphite. This solution will eat away any copper or other metals that may have been smelted into the gold when it was manufactured. The remaining gold substance will collect in the bottom of the beaker and will be pure 24k gold.

11 Recover the pure gold. Drain your refining solution into a glass storage container for future use. Allow any remaining chemicals to evaporate off of the gold, then wash the gold thoroughly with water. Now you have successfully refined gold from electronics scrap.

Read more: How to Refine Gold From Electronic Scrap | eHow.com www.ehow.com...



posted on Oct, 28 2011 @ 05:33 AM
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I just wanted to return to this thread and share some of my knowledge on this topic.

I am a project manager that spent a number of years deploying Euro wide processes to reclaim the rare earths and precious metals from the WEEE we put on the market.. the scale and scope of the project covered 50 of the worlds top IT and telecoms manufacturers with a revenue stream in the multi-billions.

I admit I had on rose coloured coloured glasses and was pretty idealised that I was doing my part in saving our environment.. however it soon became apparent that this was more to reclaim the rare and precious metals than it was to save the environment.

I would say with the price hikes in China over the rare earths and the cost of precious metals that we are within a few years of it being viable to dig up the equipment that has been buried in landfills, the reason for that won't be to save the planet but rather that this equipment has the highest quantities of those metals.

I would also expect to see some effort to clean up the waste dumps around the world, again not for the environment but for the metals they contain.

The point of my post is to explain for those out there who are interested in this that I would personally be aiming to reclaim the older business equipment as they contain the higher quantities of these metals, and that it won't be long before other vested interests try to corner this market..

In any case I really hope this helps



posted on Dec, 14 2011 @ 04:08 PM
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I happened across a website today, which shows (in pictures) how to extract gold from electronics. Now, mind you, there is no written description of the process, but you can figure it out by studying the images. Anyhow, when I saw the website, it reminded me of this thread.

www.leenks.com...







 
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