Extracting gold from electronic waste is one of the best ways to earn money as well as preserve this capital and economic development of the country. E-waste, also called e-waste, are various forms of electrical and electronic equipment that no longer have value to their users or no longer fulfill their original purpose.
E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams. Although e-waste contains complex combinations of highly toxic substances that are hazardous to health and the environment, many products also contain valuable recyclable materials that create different types of waste compared to traditional municipal waste.
In this article, we are going to extract gold from electronic waste. At first, it is better to familiarize yourself with waste and its types:
Waste classification
Any material that can no longer be used and can be recycled is called waste. In fact, waste has financial value and can be sold.
Wastes fall into the following three categories:
- Metal waste
- Non-metallic waste
- Electronic waste
What is electronic waste?
Electronic waste is one of the important categories of waste that contain valuable metals such as gold. From malfunctioning electrical appliances such as refrigerators and televisions to even a burnt light bulb, they are included in the category of electronic waste. Electronic waste has a very high variety, so people who work in this profession should benefit from a very high experience.
Perhaps more than 500 models of electronic boards can be discovered in scrap warehouses, which are valued depending on the assembly and the ICs on them. For example, the electronic boards that are discovered inside waste companies are valued from 10 thousand tomans per kilo to 1 million per kilo.
Electronic waste including mobile boards, computer boards, telecommunications boards, and all boards in the market are known as double green boards. The more montages there are on the green double boards, the more valuable the boards are.
All types of electronic waste
It divides electronic waste into the following 10 categories :
- Large household appliances : refrigerator, freezer, washing machine, clothes dryer, dishwasher, electric gas stove and hot plate, microwave, electric fan and air conditioner.
- Small household appliances : vacuum cleaner, toaster, grinder, coffee machine, hairdressing and drying equipment, brushing and shaving.
- Information technology (IT) and telecommunication equipment : main computers, mini computers, personal computers, laptops, notebooks, printers, phones and mobiles , etc.
- Consumable equipment : radio, television, video cameras, video recorders, stereo recorders, audio amplifiers, and musical instruments.
- Lighting equipment : direct and compact fluorescent lamps and high intensity discharge lamps.
- Electric and electronic tools : drills, saws, sewing machines, soldering irons, equipment for turning, milling, grinding, drilling, boring, folding, bending, or similar processing of wood and metal.
- Toys, amusement equipment, and sporting goods : electric trains or racing car sets, video games, and sports equipment with electrical elements.
- Medical equipment : Radiotherapy equipment, heart and blood vessels, dialysis, lung ventilators, nuclear medicine and analyzers.
- Monitoring and control tools : smoke detectors, heating regulators and thermostats.
- Automatic dispensers : for hot drinks, hot or cold bottles, solid products, money and all devices that automatically deliver different products.
Common methods of e-waste recycling
Electrical waste contains valuable metals such as gold and silver, and their recycling can bring these materials back into the production cycle. For this reason, their recycling is of particular importance.
Among the methods that are used to recycle these wastes, the following can be mentioned:
- Copper plating and electrolysis
- Lead plating and coupling
- Chemical method
Steps to extract gold from electronic waste
First, we dissolve electronic waste in nitric acid. Basic metals such as copper, brass and other metals are dissolved in nitric acid. But if it has gold plating or chrome, it does not dissolve in nitric acid.
Then those that did not dissolve in nitric acid, we remove the rest and dissolve it with Soltani acid on indirect heat. After it is dissolved, put it on indirect heat until it reaches 70 degrees.
After reaching this temperature, instead of using sodium meta-disulfate to recover the gold from the sultanic acid, which is recovered as sludge, we get help from laboratory iron sulfate.
The meta disulfate that is available in the market is Chinese, and its Canadian and German origin is not available due to its high price, and its use is not economical. As a result, we use laboratory iron sulfate with high purity and no impurities.
Dissolve iron sulfate in hot water and slowly add iron sulfate to it when the sultanic acid is hot. In this case, Soltani acid reacts strongly and a dark colored gas called NO2 is emitted.
We must repeat the work of adding iron sulfate to the acid several times until the solution no longer reacts. When the solution does not react, we find that the solution of sultanic acid containing gold is saturated and there is no more gold left in it to give back.
An important point about extracting gold from electronic waste
The property of acid is that when a metal is dissolved in the acid, in order to get the previous metal from the acid, we must add another metal to the acid to get the previous metal. As a result, when we want to extract gold, we have to add iron sulfate slowly to get the gold.
After the completion of the reaction, the solution is kept aside for 48 hours and a dark brown sludge settles.
After that, remove the acid from this sludge three or four times (so-called washed) until the acid is removed from the sludge. As long as we melt it in the crucible, the gold rate will not decrease. As a result, he did this three or four times to make the sludge free from acid.
In the next step, we dry the mud and collect it with a brush and pour it into the bush.
Then slowly add borax as much as the mud itself and melt it inside the pot.
After melting our gold slime, it is formed as living metal and yellow gold.
Advantages of extracting gold from electronic components
Electronic waste includes precious metals such as gold, silver, copper, palladium, platinum, etc., whose recycling can boost the country’s economy as well as the production cycle.
But regardless of the valuable elements that are in them, they also carry risks. In this waste, there are substances such as mercury, lead, cadmium and lithium, etc., which can cause harm to humans and the environment. Cadmium used in mobile batteries is one of the toxic metals that can cause groundwater pollution.
Computer parts can also cause harm to humans by creating radiation. Lead, which is a heavy metal, is present in this waste, for example, a TV has 8 pounds of lead. Mercury is also used in some electronic components.
Learning how to extract and recycle gold from an electronic board
Recycling of gold from electronic boards, which has its own categories and methods, which is discussed in the following.
What are electronic boards?
Considering that the revolution of information and technology has exponentially increased the use of new electronic equipment, computer boards, mobile boards and even CDs and even electronic parts such as modems, flash drives, monitors, with increasing lifespan and deterioration become Unusable electronic parts are considered as electronic waste.
Also, the production of obsolete products is growing. E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams. In European countries and even in the United States, there is abundant production
It is these electronic parts that are used to export them to third world countries, although electronic waste contains complex combinations of highly toxic substances that pose a risk to health and the environment, and due to not being familiar with the method Electronic waste recycling in these countries we see burning and shredding them with grinding machines, which in addition to the high cost, increases environmental pollution as a result of burning them.
But many products also contain valuable recoverable materials, which makes this type of waste different from traditional municipal waste.
Recycling methods of electronic boards
At the global level, electronic waste constitutes more than 5% of all urban solid waste, mainly in mobile boards, computer boards, there are precious parts such as gold and copper, and it increases with the increase in sales of electronic products in developing countries. find And some even claim that they can extract 1 to 2 grams of gold from mobile boards. Most of the world’s e-waste is recycled in developing countries, where informal and dangerous arrangements for extracting and selling metals are common. But normally between 700 and 800 soots of gold can be extracted.
Classification of waste electronic boards
Electronic boards are divided into several categories, top-load boards, floor-load boards, intermediate-load boards, no-load boards. Recycling companies in developed countries are facing strict environmental regulatory regimes and increasing waste disposal costs.
Overhead wins
These types of boards are considered among the most abundant electronic waste, and therefore export to small traders in developing countries are more profitable than recycling, which often contain precious metals such as gold.
Normally, these types of electronic boards include relays, crystals, resistors, diodes, ICs, chips, etc., which are precious parts. In developed countries, they face strict environmental regulatory regimes and increased waste disposal costs.
Floor boards
Mobile boards are one of the main types of floor boards, and the ability to extract gold from mobile boards is very high. And therefore exporting to small traders in developing countries is more profitable than recycling.
Unlimited wins
The equipment used in this type of boards is often used in monitors, TV, radio and power boards, etc., which is one of the lowest quality types of boards for recycling precious parts. In their own countries, there is also illegal movement of e-waste in the form of donations and charity from rich industrialized countries to developing countries.
Extending the lifespan of electronic boards
A growing body of epidemiological and clinical evidence has raised concerns about the potential risk of e-waste to human health, particularly in developing countries such as India and China.
In these countries, by repairing these parts, they try to increase the efficiency of the parts, which will eventually increase by 2 years. The primitive methods used by unauthorized backyard operators (for example, the informal sector) to recycle, reprocess and recycle e-waste expose workers to a number of toxic substances.
Even with the increase in the lifespan of electronic parts to 2 years, after that the parts will be damaged and you must recycle them. Processes such as removing components, processing wet chemicals and burning them are used.
If you know the methods of recycling, you can totally benefit from it and it leads to direct exposure and inhalation of harmful chemicals. Otherwise, there is no benefit in recycling e-waste in traditional ways.
Observe the following points when buying electronic boards
- Boards that have been used in medicine, military or aerospace usually contain more gold and silver than other boards.
- In general, the older the boards and electronic parts are, the more gold and silver they contain.
- To value an electronic board, one should pay attention to the amount of chips and surface mounting capacitors in it, the possible gold coatings on the board, the application the board had, the year the board was made, and many other things.
- Copper bar boards, which are usually brown in color and separated from audio-visual equipment and home appliances, contain very little gold and silver. Therefore, these boards are only considered for copper recycling.
Extracting gold from mobile kits and computer parts
- Collecting metal chips containing gold in computer processors, gold dental veneers and jewelry
- Put them in the coffee cup.
- Mix two cups of salt ink and one cup of hydrogen peroxide in a container.
- Pour the ink solution of salt and hydrogen peroxide into the coffee cup.
- You can do gold mining.
Abandoning or burying these wastes can cause damage to the environment and humans. Therefore, the best way to solve this problem is to recycle them. You can contact us to get more information about extracting gold from electronic parts and buying electronic waste .
A common mistake when mining gold from electronic boards
Many waste buyers think that the source of income for this type of waste is the plastic used in it. People who profit from e-waste can because of the environmental laws, corrupt officials and workers
reap significant profits with a small income. In the form of kilos, it is poured into grinding machines, if 1 kilo of lead is needed for cleaning 2 kilos. And in order to achieve a stable and immediate future, there is a need to formulate policies and strategies for safe disposal and recycling of electronic waste.
That this is not economical and it is better to get a big profit by having enough information on how to recycle electronic waste. The complex composition and improper management of e-waste negatively affects human health.