Applications and methods of extracting gold from mobile phones

What precious metals are found in regular push-button mobile phones?

Experts say that the older a mobile phone model is recycled, the more precious metals can be recovered from it.

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Technologies are constantly developing and there is less and less need to use radio components with precious metals to create more advanced microelectronics.

If you take push-button mobile phones that were “new” five or ten years ago, then you can find the largest amount of gold, silver, palladium, tantalum and other valuable metals in them.

We should not forget that copper is becoming more expensive every year. Therefore, old mobile phones are recycled in order to get more copper out of them. On average, according to scientists, one ordinary mobile phone with buttons contains up to 10 grams of pure copper.

In order to obtain the same amount of pure copper, a ton of ore must be mined, then it must be purified and then the copper must be isolated in its pure form, which is released using active and dangerous chemicals. It is much easier and more environmentally friendly to recycle old mobile phones so that you can get the right amount of copper.

But it is worth paying attention to other precious metals in push-button mobile phones. We are talking about silver and palladium. The latter metal is one of the most expensive and is certainly valued higher than gold. Therefore, palladium in a regular push-button mobile phone is several times less than gold - about 0.009 grams. There will be more silver - 0.25 grams. This metal is famous for the fact that it perfectly conducts electric current and in microelectronics it is often used instead of the more expensive gold and palladium.

Summary – Metallic Smartphone Value

Knowing the composition of a regular smartphone, you can make interesting calculations. The sum of all the previously listed elements in one device is about 18 grams.

If we assume that each household has 2 unused smartphones, taking into account the number of all households - about 49 million, we get a rather impressive amount.

It turns out that there are about 100 million unused mobile phones , and the resources they contain are worth almost 4 billion rubles!

Therefore, any unused or faulty electronic equipment should be returned to a professional recycling company - this will allow you to recover expensive materials and take care of the environment.

How much gold is in a regular push-button telephone?

It’s worth saying right away that there is very little gold in the phone – 0.024 grams. But if you recycle a ton of circuit boards from push-button mobile phones, you can get almost a quarter of a kilogram of gold.

For those who like to obtain gold from radio components using the old-fashioned method, it will be difficult to profitably obtain the valuable metal from mobile phones.

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If a handful of old Soviet capacitors, which can easily be dissolved in a jar of hydrochloric acid, yielded several grams of the noble metal, then to obtain the same amount you will have to dissolve thousands of microcircuits from mobile phones in acid. It is much more profitable to recycle radio components with precious metals than microcircuits - this is the law of the market.

Of course, it is much easier to get access to a large number of old mobile phones than to gain access to kilograms of Soviet capacitors and transistors.

Therefore, many companies that buy old electrical parts still prefer to take risks and buy tons of old mobile phones, since the benefits can be obtained more than from searching for and recycling that small number of Soviet “golden” capacitors that are still untouched.

USSR TVs

This gadget was previously released in two versions : a tube device and a transistor device.

It makes no sense to buy tube TVs, since precious metals are contained in these devices only in the beam tetrode - the largest lamp marked 6P36S, 6P44S, 6P45S, GU50.

Another thing is transistor TVs. There is an abundance of precious metals here.

Buyers are interested in the following elements :

• microcircuits encased in plastic housings;
• transistors marked KT814, KT940, KT310, KT502, KT503;
• AL307 LEDs in the channel switching unit;
• “yellow” (according to the color of the case) transistors KT203, located in the SMRK unit and in some variants (models) on other boards;
• capacitors KM-1;
• “yellow”, sometimes “red” capacitors K10-17, etc.

Any product is subject to careful inspection, since products of this type, produced in the Union, were distinguished by a variety of models .

In addition, one device could have different configurations, both containing precious metals and not using them.

We bring to your attention a table that shows which USSR TVs contain valuable elements and how many there are. The mass of precious metals in one product is given in grams.

If we compare the content of precious metals in Soviet TVs “Horizon”, “Vityaz”, etc. with imported ones, it is worth noting that a device manufactured in Japanese and Chinese, Taiwanese or Korean assembly contains only 0.1474 g of gold and 2.4859 g of silver.

How to get gold from a mobile phone?

The technology is quite simple, but it is worth observing safety requirements. When working with concentrated hydrochloric acid, you only need to wear a mask and goggles, and you must wear special gloves on your hands.

You will need to pour hydrochloric acid into a glass container and fill it with broken microcircuits from mobile phones. The cases do not need to be thrown into hydrochloric acid, since there is nothing valuable in them!

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After a week of chemical fermentation, there will be nothing left of the microcircuits, and grains of gold will remain at the bottom.
Do not forget that all components of a mobile phone - iron, copper, tin, even silver - react with strong hydrochloric acid. Only gold and palladium do not participate in the reaction and precipitate. ◄ Back to news

Computers

Soviet-style electronic computers contain in their design many capacitors marked KM, K10-17, as well as “yellow” microcircuits in plastic or ceramic shells . These are elements containing precious metals.

There are also gold-plated connectors, contact pads and other elements suitable for refining.

In computers from abroad, the processor is valued. There is a particularly high gold content in processors housed in a lilac ceramic case .

We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the table with the content of precious metals in some computers and their processors. The mass is also given in grams per device.

Foreign-made computers manufactured before 1990 contain elements similar to domestic parts marked K10-17. These capacitors are accepted at the same price at which domestic parts are purchased.

Printers

This type of office equipment, from a profitability point of view, is the most unprofitable investment .
Of course, this equipment also contains precious metals.

In particular, gold-plated contacts of the print head and cartridges.

Copiers - photosensitive elements - are coated with noble metal.

However, the amount of precious metals in printers is so negligible that “the game is not worth the candle.” For example, foreign equipment in this category contains 0.01 g of gold and 0.8 g of silver. A domestically produced product, model CM6329 02M, boasts only 0.01 g of “yellow” metal.

Refrigerators

It doesn’t matter whether the household unit was manufactured in the Union or has been released from the assembly line at the present time, all refrigerators, or rather thermostats, have silver contacts, as well as soldering with PSR solder.

Consider the most popular brands :

• Nord-155 contains 0.0012 g Au and 6.21 g Ag;
• The Smolensk brand refrigerator can boast the same amount of precious metals;
• Mir-101-1 – 3.177 g Ag;
• Minsk-126 – 2.38 g Ag;
• Zyl - 1.326 g of the same metal;
• Don – 1.8 g Ag.

In general, it is also quite meager . Whether it’s televisions or high-precision equipment, not to mention equipment intended for the military-industrial complex of the USSR.

Refining of precious metals

There are several ways to remove VDM from recycled equipment .

For home use, the electrolysis method is primarily suitable.

To do this you will need:

• capacity;
• hydrochloric or sulfuric acid as an electrolyte;
• a cathode made of lead or steel;
• an anode made of gold, in the case of refining of this particular precious metal;
• power supply providing alternating current.

In addition to electrolysis, precious metals can be “etched” chemically - using a mixture called “aqua regia”. This composition is a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids in a ratio of 3:1.

Refining of various items and parts is carried out in a way that will allow you to obtain the necessary elements with minimal losses.

Microcircuits containing gold

First of all, you should look for the Soviet period - in imported ones the precious metal content is minimal. In many microcircuits, the gold is hidden under the copper casing. You can find out exactly the content of gold alloy in old microcircuits only by looking at the passport for this or that equipment.

Many microcircuits contain gold.

Gold is also found in round, ceramic, planar DIP microcircuits and transistors, plastic cases, and power transistors. In ALS indicators and diodes. In domestically produced connectors, pins with white or yellow coating of contact parts. In lamellas from boards. In ceramic monolithic capacitors of some brands, tantalum capacitors. In some switches, toggle switches, buttons, resistors. In rotation angle and pressure sensors. TPP and TPR thermocouples, thermal resistance, temperature sensors, strain gauges, pressure sensors. The installation wires have fluoroplastic insulation. In some generator lamps, in printed circuit boards with radioelements.

Much more gold is in Soviet computers. To achieve high performance, it was necessary to use a lot of precious metal. Most of these machines have been scrapped and replaced with modern and powerful ones, but such equipment is still found today and a decent amount of gold can be obtained from it.

The easiest way to extract gold is from this technique. However, non-working equipment can be handed over to special collection points, which themselves sell it at their discretion and make a profit.

Among such equipment there may be a working one, but it is very expensive if offered to collectors.

Before proceeding directly to gold extraction, it is necessary to disassemble the device.

A week later

So, a little over a week has passed and we can finish the gold mining experiment. If the parts were selected correctly, then at the bottom of the jar you will notice fragments of gold extracted from these parts. But almost no one has checked how much gold can be mined by digging through a mobile phone. But if a small amount comes out of a whole computer, then a couple of grains can come out of a much smaller phone.

Now you need to “pull” the gold out of the acid. The easiest way is to use a paper filter (for filtering coffee). But you can also use a towel as a filter, but you should not clean gold grains from the fabric with your hands; you can disrupt the already soft structure of the metal, turning it into dust. The best solution would be to wash off the gold with vodka into a test tube or sealed container.

In connection with the spread of such methods of mining the yellow metal, some gold miners want to know how much gold is in mobile SIM cards. It all depends on the specific sample, but in general the amount of gold does not exceed a few hundredths of a gram, although some craftsmen write that they managed to extract 0.5 grams of metal from a SIM card.

We extracted gold from computer circuit boards, but it is worth remembering that each part has its own specific preparation before extraction and the composition of the solution, so if you are not a chemist, then work with gold extraction very carefully, observing all safety measures.

Perhaps almost every one of us considers himself an expert in mobile technology. And why not: most often, one glance at a smartphone or tablet is enough to determine its model, the number of megapixels of the main camera, the processor frequency, the amount of internal memory and other key characteristics. This is certainly good, but how much do we know about real

components of our devices? For example, it turns out that about 30 milligrams of gold and 300 milligrams of silver can be found inside smartphones. Have you ever heard of something like this? Well, let's take a look at some equally interesting facts.

It was possible to learn more about the chemical elements used in the creation of smartphones thanks to an educational video. It was shared by our foreign colleagues from phonearena

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Despite such a small volume of the above noble metals, their use costs a pretty penny. For example, since the beginning of 2014, their implementation has cost about $2.5 billion. Quite a lot, isn't it?

Naturally, the information does not end there. However, for ease of perception it is necessary to create several subparagraphs.

Let's start mining

To extract gold (except for acids) we will need:

• Glass jar;
• Rubberized gloves;
• Respirator;
• Safety glasses;
• Measuring plastic or glass cup;
• Plastic stick for stirring.

First, let’s mix a mixture of our ingredients, but don’t be lazy to read additional literature on chemistry, because an incorrectly prepared cocktail of peroxide and hydrochloric acid can have a sad effect.

We put on a respirator, goggles and gloves; a rubber apron, a mask, or, better yet, specialized clothing for chemists would be very useful. It is strongly recommended to prepare the mixture in an open, ventilated area.

When we open a bottle of acid, smoke that is very harmful to humans will come out of it as a result of its connection with air. That is why work must be carried out in open areas in compliance with safety measures.

Acid and peroxide are mixed in proportions of 2 to 1 (two parts acid and one part peroxide). It is very important to pour the acid into the hydrogen peroxide; if you do this procedure the other way around, the reaction may lead to the release of liquid.

The components must be poured very slowly so that the solution mixes evenly. The resulting mixture should then be stirred with a plastic stick. The resulting solution should be greenish in color.

Tape recorders and radios

These units, produced in the Union, also had elements containing precious metals in their designs.

The most valuable items
in tape recorders :

• “black” microcircuits in a plastic shell (174un7 and other parts);
• powerful transistors marked KT802 and similar elements - KT814, KT503, KT203, KT3102;
• “yellow” chips located in the indicator controller.

Such elements are found in the legendary Mayak tape recorder of the 80s, as well as in devices similar to it .

In tape recorders, precious metals can also be contained in capacitors, relays, switches, and other elements; noble metals in radiols are contained in capacitors.

In addition, silver contacts of range switches are often found. Let us consider in the table the content of valuable elements in some tape recorders.