My Recovered GOLD from eWaste

Discussion in 'Gold' started by Cind3r, Aug 17, 2018.

  1. Cind3r

    Cind3r Active Member Silver Stacker

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    Hello Stackers

    I wanted to share my journey with you about recovering gold from ewaste.

    This account was my first test run with a small sample to see if i could even do it.

    I used circuit board cuttings from mobile phones and ram chips

    Once i bathed it for 3 days in a HCL+H2O2 bath, filtered and washed i got the gold plate

    Next i disolved in HCL and Bleach(7%). Filtered and washed and i got this awesome 22.5+ Kt gold mud

    Now the next part was a bit sad because the instructions i followed stuffed me.
    What was meant to happen was to dry out the mud then place it in a crucible with flux....problem was the flux i used turned into glass and would not remelt once set so i could not get my gold. What i did was crush the gold/glass and re-disolve it ect.
    This incident took 90% of my yield but i learnt a lot from it.

    Here is what i had left

    it would have been profitable. im still happy :)

    I took to gold to a seller with an Xref just to find out the purity and was told that its 24kt. The Xref did not show any other elements on the screen. I would have been ok with some copper, nickle, zinc, tin or lead as they are the base metals that i dissolved to get the gold plate flake
     
    Cind3r, Aug 17, 2018
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  2. GF

    GF Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Awesome! I have been smashing through ewaste ever since I bought a 1oz button from Humbolt maybe 4 years ago but don’t know what to do with it.
     
    GF, Aug 17, 2018
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  3. Gullintanni

    Gullintanni Well-Known Member

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    Awesome.
    From scrap to money and cool skills learned/used along the way.
    Keep up the great work and do not be shy in sharing the results.
     
    Gullintanni, Aug 18, 2018
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  4. Cind3r

    Cind3r Active Member Silver Stacker

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    Cind3r, Aug 21, 2018
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  5. StewyD32

    StewyD32 Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Out of curiosity. What was your expense of the Ewaste (not the consumables) to get 0.13g
     
    StewyD32, Aug 21, 2018
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  6. Cind3r

    Cind3r Active Member Silver Stacker

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    well i got it all for free from being a bin scab. Also i got about 200 old 90's-2010's mobile phones from my old work.

    i buy ewaste boards for about $3/kg off gumtree if the grade of the board is ok (stay away from power supply boards)
     
    Cind3r, Aug 21, 2018
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  7. Nancy Willian

    Nancy Willian New Member

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    A scrap-entrepreneur in the making. Loved your journey man :)
     
    Nancy Willian, Sep 18, 2018
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  8. GRETZKY427

    GRETZKY427 Active Member Silver Stacker

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    Whats the going rate for the gold fingers cut of the memory sticks out of computers ? or do buyers prefer the whole memory stickers kept in tact ?

    Cheers, HAPPY STACKING :)
     
    GRETZKY427, Sep 20, 2018
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  9. SilAuOz

    SilAuOz Member

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    Great work looks really interesting.
     
    SilAuOz, Sep 29, 2018
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