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Precious Metals in Scrap?

icekila

Nov 7, 2011
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Nov 7, 2011
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Hi to all, I have been surfing this forum but I finally registered, excellent forum. I have a question can precious metals be harvested from scrap electronics?, like gold, silver and platinum.
 

davelectronic

Dec 13, 2010
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Dec 13, 2010
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Hi welcome to the forum icekila.

I think this is possible, but some components will yield more precious metals than others, once you establish which ones contain the most gold platinum silver etc you need a way to extract it, for the average joe i doubt this is possible.

My vision on how it might be done would involve polvarizing the components, then treating it like mined metals, extraction by chemical and heat process, unless you have a company finances and the notion of a site processing plant.

If your interest lies in precious rare earth metals, i would opt for a good quality metal detector, a garret or similar pro gear, and a farmers permission to walk his fields, depending on the country you live in, artifacts need declaring to the appropriate authority, if your honest, the arrangement in the uk where i am is the farmer and the finder split the reward offered by the government / crown.

Any way good luck with the extraction process.
Dave. :)
 

icekila

Nov 7, 2011
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Nov 7, 2011
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I have a ps2 and i was wandering is there gold or other precious metals inside?
 

davelectronic

Dec 13, 2010
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LOL Gold

Let me know if you find a fortune in there, i will pull my sons one to bits, he might not be happy, but if there is a mint in there i could buy him a new one. LOL.
Dave. :)
 

shrtrnd

Jan 15, 2010
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I don't think very many places use silver anymore (I used to take-off all the silver relay contacts
on the old telephone relays here in the States).
I still see a lot of VERY finely plated circuit boards, but it's only economical if you do a
lot of boards.
You're wasting your time trying to salvage any gold from a single newly manufactured
circuit board.
Nice try though.
 
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