HOW TO EXTRACT GOLD FOILS FROM ELECTRONICS THROUGH HOMEMADE METHODS WITH IMAGES

in #how-to7 years ago

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Do you know Hundreds of tonnes of gold can be recovered from old electronics devices such as mobile phones, Television and computers, Your old phones may be more valuable than you think.

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Gold is used on electronic circuit boards because it has excellent conductive properties and does not corrode over time.

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When it comes to gold salvaging or mining large quantities of gold are recovered every year from mobile phones, sim cards and Atm cards.

STEP 1: SAFETY FIRST

Aquire apparatus, chemicals and safety equipments

FOR SAFETY
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googles, rubber gloves, glass mask and a well ventilated area if it is not done outside

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FOR APPARATUS
one glass beaker, coffee filter, scissors, and two plastic cups

CHEMICALS

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(toilet bowl cleaner)

Hydrogen peroxide (can be found in pharmacies), toilet bowl cleaner (must contain hydrochloric acid). Lab grade hydrochloric acid can also be used, sufficient clean water is also needed.

STEP 2: PREPARATION OF ELECTRONIC FOR.
EXTRACTION

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take your phone and pull out any PCB (printed circuit board), are boards made from coated surfaces having gold foils, search for gold plaitings on the pcb. Break them into bits to fit into the glass beaker.

STEP 4 : CLEANING OF THE PCB

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rinse the pcb under clean sufficient water and dry thoroughly.

STEP 5: CREATING AN ETCHING SOLUTION

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Take the bowl cleaner and hydrogen peroxide, mix them equally well to form a solution enough to fully submerge the pcbs.The solution is called etching solution because it dissolves the nickel under the gold which detached the nickel free from the gold foils. Put the pcbs in the solution and make sure they are fully submerged. Depending on the concentration of chemical used, i used 3% peroxide and the toilet bowl cleaner was 9.5% hydrochloric acid.

NOTE :

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This is hazardous because of the amount of chlorine gas released, make sure safety equipments is used and it is carried out in a well ventilated area.

STEP 6 : WAITING

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Wait for the gold foils to come off the pcb, once you get gold foils floating around wait for a day to make sure all nickel is free from the gold.

STEP 7: THE GOLD FOILS EXTRACTION

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Pull out all the pcbs and scrape off any gold foils still attached to the pcb (make sure you're using safety gloves) then fully submerge it into clean water. Add some water to the etching solution filled with gold then thin out the solution gradually when the gold foils have settled to the bottom by pouring out little solution and adding clean water, repeat this process until the solution is thin enough to pass through the filter.

STEP 8: FILTERING OUT GOLD FOILS FROM THE.
SOLUTION

Pour the thin solution containing the gold foils into the filter which is over a cup, make sure you do not rip the filter else it would be repeated. After pulling out all the gold continue to run clean water through the filter to make the gold clean.

STEP 9 : REMOVING THE GOLD FOILS FROM THE.
FILTER
Turn the filer inside out over the cup and add little clean water to the top of the filter to push the gold foils off into the cup wait for the gold foils to settle then get as much water out of the cup carefully until you are left with Gold.

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NOTE : Dispose all waste properly after usage

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This post has received gratitude of 1.00 % from @jout

You got a 0.33% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @jout!

Nice post @stevendion and very educational.
I never knew I've been using and disposing gold materials all this while..

Wow this is interesting i never knew, waste products like this can turnout to be of great value.
Nice tutorial @stevendion

Yeah @phunke,not everything is a waste

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This post has received a 0.52 % upvote from @drotto thanks to: @banjo.

Thanks @drotto And @banjo..i really appreciate

very informative!!!

This is a good information. But how to get the materials to be used is the problem

The materials are common around.. Thats why they are homemade.. Toilet bowl cleaner is sold anywhere, hydrogen peroxide is sold in pharmacies... You should have old phones.... So i can tell the materials are so so easy to get

Interesting, thank you :) Is it profitable though? It seems like quite a process for gold foils. I'm sure there are variables though i.e. different products containing different amounts of gold.

Yeah.. You are right, but i think this method is simpler and safer than other methods

Interesting process. Is the value of the gold recovered greater than the cost of the chemicals used etc?

Yes, the value is greater depending on the quantity of pcb you get.. The chemicals are cheaper and can be found anywhere.. Example toilet bowl cleaner is used in homes (must contain hydrochloric acid) so you might want to check the content, hydrogen peroxide can be found in pharmacies... Other apparatus are minors.. So it is worth it