Good afternoon, dear readers! Today we will plunge into the atmosphere of the Klondike. At the end of the 18th century. California was gripped by a gold rush. People came from all over the world in pursuit of grains of the precious metal. Read this article and you can feel like you are in a gold mine without leaving your home. I'll tell you how you can get gold from a computer.
The gold rush was remembered for one interesting incident - while playing in a stream near his house, a twelve-year-old boy, Conrad Reed, found a massive yellowish cobblestone. And for a long time the family propped up the door of the house with a gold stone weighing 7 kg. And then the bar was sold for an impressive price - $3.
Amazingly, many of us act equally irrationally, throwing household appliances, old motherboards and chips into landfills.
Are there precious metals in computers?
If we roughly calculate the weight of all previously mined (legally) gold, the figure will be impressive - 189,000 tons. And about 10% of this weight comes from electrical engineering.
However, if you disassemble a modern computer into its component parts and find out in detail what is valuable, in addition to information, is inside, the results will be disappointing: all the “gold-bearing” parts of the computer in total contain no more than thirty milligrams of gold. But the parts of the ancient mastodon - a computer from the early nineties - contained up to 3 grams of precious metal.
So does it make sense to mine gold from computer technology? If you rush to take your gaming computer apart in search of gold, the total amount mined will not exceed hundreds of rubles. But if you have your own computer workshop, and a pile of non-working microcircuits has accumulated under the table, you shouldn’t throw them away.
How to extract radio components with precious metals from the system unit
Precious metals in the system unit are distinguished by a large number of additional impurities and, after extraction, will most likely require special cleaning. Extracting metal from parts is a complex and unsafe process that is best left to professionals. During extraction, acids and other chemical elements are used that are dangerous to human health and even life.
From all of the above, one conclusion can be drawn - old system units contain a lot of useful things.
If a person does not have the skills to independently mine metals and the time to acquire this knowledge and skills, then he can always sell parts or a system unit to companies that buy such valuable “junk.” This will help you get rid of stale junk and get a good reward for it. ◄ Back to news
Which computer parts contain gold?
Gold is an inert metal and practically does not corrode or oxidize. Moreover, he is an excellent guide. Therefore, they cover contacts, connectors, memory slots, ports, and jumpers. Capacitors, boards, video cards, even computer fans and keyboards contain precious metals, not only Au, but also Ag, Pt, Pd.
I will tell you in more detail which parts are the most gold-containing.
motherboards
The motherboard is the main part of any computer. It is here that control is exercised over the interaction of all components of the machine. Its controllers, chipset chips, connectors and contacts contain the lion's share (if you can call it 3 mg) of the computer's gold. If you look closely, you can see the gold-plated parts of the motherboard in this photo:
Non-working motherboards are a good source of Au if you have several dozen of them.
Processors
The processor is the main piece of computer software. It does all the computational work. There are also a lot of gold plated details. The content of gold dust in the Intel Pentium pro microprocessor is over 2 mg.
Watch this video showing gold refined from a processor.
But 1 kg of Pentium pro microprocessors contains 11.4 grams. gold. An ordinary person is unlikely to be able to collect so much, but for a system administrator this is not a problem.
Hard disks
The main storage device for information, the hard drive also contains platinum group metals. So, gold in one hard drive is 0.034 grams, and silver is 0.013 grams.
The older the storage device, the more precious metals it contains. And it’s not even a matter of the notorious quality of Soviet-made devices, but of elementary technical progress. It is worth remembering the evolution of discs - from massive vinyl records to micro-CD cards of modern smartphones.
Today's parts are much thinner and lighter. Accordingly, they contain several times less gold.
Motherboard and CPU
Now comes the fun part. How much gold is in a computer motherboard? How much is there in the processor? Let's also give a simple list as an example.
You've probably heard that gold can be found almost everywhere on a motherboard. And indeed it is. The following may be gold-bearing:
connectors
IDE, PCI;
ISA, AGP, PCI-EXPRESS
slots sockets
;
RAM
slots ports
and
jumpers
.
On the motherboard, gold is applied almost everywhere, but in a very, very thin layer.
As for the processor, the situation here will be like this.
| Intel i435 DX4 | 8.50 g |
| AMD | 6, 15 g |
| Pentium PRO | 11, 40 g |
| Cyrix Cx486 | 5, 17 g |
| IBM 5×86C | 4.8 g |
| 486 DX2-80 | 4.3 g |
| 486 SX | 4.2 g |
Now that’s a completely different matter, isn’t it? If not for one thing. These processors should be collected exactly a kilogram!
How much gold is contained in old type processors?
If you are lucky enough to get your hands on a collection of old-style processors, you can say that this is a real gold mine.
Thus, ten AMD-type processors with a brown case contain a whole gram of precious metal. And in Soviet processors, especially for military use, the cost is several grams of gold in one processor. According to the passport, the old Elbrus-2 computer contained more than three kg of gold.
How much gold is in a laptop?
A laptop, like any computer equipment, contains precious metals. All the conclusions that we made regarding a regular PC apply to it, but there is even less gold in a laptop due to its size. Its amount does not exceed 0.3 mg. There is a legend that elite VIP-class laptops contain many times more gold.
In fact, mining gold from computers only makes sense on an industrial scale. At recycling plants, the amount of extracted solar metal of the highest standard is counted in kilograms.
Metal processing
It was said above that at the end of the etching process, it is necessary to add borax and soda to the resulting metal. The use of these substances makes it possible to eliminate material loss at the next stage of processing and achieve a beautiful shine that the finished ingot will emit.
When processing the resulting gold, it is necessary to use steel or cast iron products.
In addition, during the casting process it is necessary to ensure that the metal flows in a thin and continuous stream. At the end, the gold should cool to room temperature. Only after this can the casting mold be disassembled.
The result is a material with a rough surface. Now it needs to be processed and given the desired look. Polishing of the material is carried out using special pastes and soft rags. For this, for example, felt and toothpaste are suitable.
Legality of such mining
Expert opinion
Vsevolod Kozlovsky
6 years in jewelry making. Knows everything about samples and can identify a fake in 12 seconds
If you seriously decide to mine gold from old computer equipment, you should read the administrative code of the Russian Federation, since according to the law, all gold found in electronics belongs to the state.
The task of users, if equipment fails, is to dispose of it appropriately. Simply put, do not throw it in a landfill, polluting the environment, but hand it over to special collection points, which will then take the batch to a recycling plant:
- workers will manually disassemble and sort all the parts, which will then be sent for recycling;
- gold-containing parts will be crushed and refined.
You can do refining at home just for fun, since this process is quite exciting.
What you need to extract gold from your computer at home
For refining, we first need good protective equipment: we should protect our hands, eyes, respiratory organs, and wear a thick apron. It is also a good idea to have a powerful hood or conduct chemical reactions in a well-ventilated area or in the open air.
Materials and reagents:
- pliers;
- screwdrivers;
- gas or gasoline burner;
- precision scales;
- filters;
- beaker made of heat-resistant glass;
- concentrated hydrochloric and nitric acids;
- hydrogen peroxide;
- methyl alcohol;
- electric stove.
Reasons for use
For a long time, these metals seemed of little use to people. Their properties are very passive: they bend easily, melt at low temperatures, and wear out quickly.
Basically, gold and silver until the end of the 19th century were used only for making jewelry and accumulating capital.
But subsequently, the beneficial properties of precious metals were discovered, namely: they do not react chemically with various liquids (except ethyl alcohol), and therefore do not form oxides. At the same time, gold and silver conduct electricity well. These characteristics are in demand in the production of modern technology, as well as in medical practice.
Mining process
There are several ways to extract precious metals from radio components. I'll tell you about the simplest ones. But in any case, first you should grind the gold-containing parts well. Separate metal from plastic as much as possible.
Option 1
Etching.
Place the crushed mass in a beaker with a solution of hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide in a ratio of 1/3. Let me remind you that you need to pour peroxide into acid, and not vice versa. Don't forget about safety precautions and protective measures! Leave the solution for five to seven days.
Stir occasionally to speed up the reaction. Not all gold. And other metal should dissolve during this time. Next, the gold is filtered and melted.
Option 2
Actually refining.
The method is based on the ability of aqua regia (a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids in a ratio of 1/3) to dissolve gold.
So, we place the sorted and crushed parts in aqua regia. To speed up the process, the mixture can be warmed up a little. Don't forget about safety precautions! Once completely dissolved, gold can be recovered from solution. Available reducing agents are sodium pyrosulfite and ferrous sulfate. The reducing agent should be added little by little, since the reduction reaction proceeds with the release of gas.
After the gold has precipitated, we thoroughly wash it with water at least five times, wash it with alcohol, dry it and melt it with the addition of boric acid. The gold obtained in this way is of the highest standard.
Etching
For a long time, people used mercury to obtain the precious metal. She connects well with this material. However, mercury is highly toxic, so it is not recommended for use at home.
If you intend to mine gold from microcircuits, you should pay attention to the etching method. To obtain precious metals, you must first prepare the following components:
- any plastic container;
- container made of heat-resistant glass;
- scales (preferably laboratory scales);
- cotton fabric that will act as a filter;
- fireproof structure through which molten metal can be taken (crucible);
- electric stove;
- rubber gloves.
Most often, gold is extracted from microcircuits by etching it. This technology involves the use of an oxidizing agent consisting of hydrochloric nitric acid. Both components must be mixed in a 3:1 ratio. This oxidizing agent has been used for several centuries. Among chemists, this mixture is called “Royal Vodka”.
This acid actively corrodes organic and inorganic materials, so your hand should be covered with a rubber glove when handling microcircuits.
The oxidizer must be poured into a glass container, into which the radio components are then placed. The latter should first be cleaned of various impurities: plastic, dirt, etc. Next, the container is placed on an electric stove and heated. As a result, the liquid should acquire a bright green tint.
The next stage involves the extraction of the precious metal. This will require a 0.5% hydroquinone solution. For every 100 ml of water you need to take no more than 5 grams of the substance. The resulting composition should be carefully and slowly mixed with hydrochloric nitric acid at the rate of 1 ml of hydroquinone solution per 100 ml of “Royal Vodka”. After completing the described procedure, the composition is left for no more than four hours.
During this time, a gold deposit forms at the bottom of the container. Now, through evaporation and drying, we extract the material. To obtain a gold bar, you will need a crucible and drills, which can be borrowed from gas welders. The latter must be added to the resulting precipitate.
Why do you need to recycle computer equipment?
Mining gold at home is an exciting process. And it is quite possible to use it for personal purposes. But it will not be possible to sell the yellow metal extracted in this way - it is illegal. It is much more rational to dispose of broken equipment in accordance with the law - take it to a collection point for household appliances.
Plastic is a real scourge of modern society. And one battery pollutes 20 cubic meters of land and water with heavy metals. If each of us takes care of the environment, we can save the planet for our children.
