[geeks] gold recovery from certain motherboards?

[Phil Stracchino]

Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:
> I have a few motherboards from old workstations that seem to have more
> than the usual amount of gold on them; traces are gold, not just the
> contacts.
> 
> Does anyone have suggestions as to how to easily:
> 
> 1) determine if the gold is worth recovering
> 
> 2) remove the gold for purposes of selling it
> 
> I am told that some recyclers have a big smelter, and the circuit boards
> are dumped in by the 50-gallon barrel load, then the gold is paid for
> after the smelting operation is done. However I do not have that
> quantity of boards.

Well, the way it's done in third-world recycling operations is smash
everything with a hammer, burn it all in an old oil drum, collect the
molten metal from the bottom, and poison everyone in the vicinity with
toxic fumes and heavy metals.  Can't say I recommend it.

I'm really not sure it's the kind of thing you can practically and
safely do at home without investing a lot more money than you'll make
from doing it.


-- 
  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
  alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
         Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                 It's not the years, it's the mileage.