bhilton
Well-known member
Hello,
I have been collecting mixed gold pins from every electronic device e-waste I've got my hands on.
Some are fully gold plated, some have one side gold plated. I believe the pins will contain copper, tin (solder), kovar (iron, nickel, cobalt), and possibly brass (copper, zinc), All the pins are mid 1990s or newer, more newer than older.
I only have 175 grams so far, but I also have a big pile of pc motherboards, various boards, and connectors to process still.
I'll start the gold recovery when I get to 1 pound or more.
What are the pros and cons of processing them all together vs. separating the magnetic / non magnetic?
I have been reading as much as I can find about how to handle them and I've narrowed down my plan as follows, any comments before I follow through?
1. Pour HCL over them and heat for a couple hours (or more) to dissolve tin. I also clipped most solder ends from the pins, but I know I haven't got all the solder, there will be some in there.
2. Rinse & filter out the HCL which hopefully takes away most of the tin (maybe I have stannous chloride now, save that for testing later).
3. Place the pins in some left over copper II chloride I have from fingers with a bubbler until everything but the gold is dissolved (i'll top up more HCL as it saturates)
4. Filter out the remaining plastic bits, dirt, and gold
5. Refine with AR
Thanks!
Bill
I have been collecting mixed gold pins from every electronic device e-waste I've got my hands on.
Some are fully gold plated, some have one side gold plated. I believe the pins will contain copper, tin (solder), kovar (iron, nickel, cobalt), and possibly brass (copper, zinc), All the pins are mid 1990s or newer, more newer than older.
I only have 175 grams so far, but I also have a big pile of pc motherboards, various boards, and connectors to process still.
I'll start the gold recovery when I get to 1 pound or more.
What are the pros and cons of processing them all together vs. separating the magnetic / non magnetic?
I have been reading as much as I can find about how to handle them and I've narrowed down my plan as follows, any comments before I follow through?
1. Pour HCL over them and heat for a couple hours (or more) to dissolve tin. I also clipped most solder ends from the pins, but I know I haven't got all the solder, there will be some in there.
2. Rinse & filter out the HCL which hopefully takes away most of the tin (maybe I have stannous chloride now, save that for testing later).
3. Place the pins in some left over copper II chloride I have from fingers with a bubbler until everything but the gold is dissolved (i'll top up more HCL as it saturates)
4. Filter out the remaining plastic bits, dirt, and gold
5. Refine with AR
Thanks!
Bill
