Recycling gold

[washingtonwomble]

Hello everyone, apologies if this has been asked before. Is there anyone refining gold from electronics in the north east of England? I've collected a small amount of gold plated pins and other gold bearing parts. I would ideally like to pay for the gold to be refined and possibly made into a bar or pendant.

Thanks in advance for any tips or ideas.

[Coverte]

How many grams, I'm pretty sure we're not talking ounces here.

[washingtonwomble]

I haven't weighed it yet. It's a small ammount. I'll post some pics soon. Cheers Coverte

[washingtonwomble]

Some pictures. I'll try to weigh it tomorrow.

[washingtonwomble]

Won't let me add more pictures, I'll try tomorrow.

[MrMidas]

Would be interesting to hear how this works out for you buddy I often thought would it be worth it ?.it is gold at the end of the day I have a load of old electronics old mobiles etc ,..be another hobby to collect that if the end result after a year was worthwhile ,and yeah does anyone have them skills here I wonder ?

[MrMidas]

I set someone up a few years back with a car scrap yard place as the bloke was looking for old car keys he said they reuse the chips and he sends them abroad to be re set but after seeing how many keys my scrap man gave him like 2 shoebox’s full I’m thinking now did he just strip the gold out of them ?

[Spyder]

I would have thought that the cost of the chemicals required and for that tiny amount would outweigh any financial benefits. 

Have a look at sreetips on youtube. I think he did electronic pins in one of his video

[washingtonwomble]

I think you are correct Spyder, that's why I'm trying to find someone that already does this and has already got the full set up. Also, I'm hoping the end result (pure gold) can be shaped into something for my wife. 

As I said above, I'm prepared to pay something just to see and own the end result.

Thanks for reading and responding, hopefully someone will be able to help and I can post it all on here.

[washingtonwomble]

Here's some more pictures with weights. Thanks

[washingtonwomble]

And more. I've also got 4 hard drives that would have gold in them that I haven't dismantled uet.

[pricha]

I saw a documentary on YouTube once how to recycle gold.  It was an incredibly long and expensive process. If it was easy everyone would be doing it.  Very interesting though.  

[Spyder]

1 hour ago, pricha said:

I saw a documentary on YouTube once how to recycle gold.  It was an incredibly long and expensive process. If it was easy everyone would be doing it.  Very interesting though.  

This is the video I mentioned earlier. If you read the comments he paid about £$1000 for the pins, add in the chemicals and the end result is about $500 loss. 

He can afford to do it as he makes YouTube videos and has a big following thus generates money off YouTube.  The average person has very little chance especially with the high cost of the chemicals (if you can legally get them) in the UK

 

Edited February 11 by Spyder

[washingtonwomble]

Hi again Spyder. I hav watched it yet but if he's paying 1k for the pins then extra for acids etc and losing 500 then he would possibly make a profit with the same amount of pins for free? 

Regatdles for me, I'm kust hoping someone could do it (possibly as a small batch within their company) and I would buy the resulting gold/pay costs etc. Here's hoping!

[Coverte]

8 hours ago, Spyder said:

I would have thought that the cost of the chemicals required and for that tiny amount would outweigh any financial benefits. 

Have a look at sreetips on youtube. I think he did electronic pins in one of his video

THIS.

I know that Keith Neumyer (of First Majectic) invested in 3 companies trying to recover PM's including mainly Gold from electronics.

Last I heard 2 of the Companied had gone bankrupt, or at the least, just ceased trading.

[washingtonwomble]

"Bump"

Has anyone got any ideas as to who could do the above?

[washingtonwomble]

Bump

[Sovhead]

The shipping, the costs of work, chemicals etc is not worth pursuing imo.

The pics u put of the weight on scales has 99% of circuit boards, plastic, solder and connector blocks etc the actual gold is very very minimal 

Dump this idea is my advice this would only work if you did it yourself had absolutely large amounts and not through a third party. 

[washingtonwomble]

Hmmm, not what I wanted to hear but see like you are right Sovhead.

[Sovhead]

On 28/02/2024 at 16:04, washingtonwomble said:

Hmmm, not what I wanted to hear but see like you are right Sovhead.

Here’s a suggestion, if you can get access to and get for free the scrap electronics.

The very first pic you put on this thread with the actual gold plated bits on the scales, why don’t you get it to that stage get a whole Load of it and sell it to someone who recycles it all the time…you must get for instance 4g of pure gold per 5kilos (wild guess) so you’d get a rough idea what it sells for.

 

like this….

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276209637413?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=uKSOU-35TH6&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=yvjAM_HqRB-&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Edited March 3 by Sovhead

[washingtonwomble]

Thanks for the suggestion Sovhead. Im looking at this as a very small hobby and I would love to find someone in the north east UK that would refine it for me. Costs etc, deals to be made. Hoping to get enough to make something for my wife. 

[pmbug]

I saw this news just the other day.  Might be worth exploring for you:

https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2024/03/turning-waste-into-gold.html

[washingtonwomble]

Thanks Pmbug, it's amazing what scientists come up with. Just wish there was something/someone local to me recovering and refining gold. Cheers

[Upsidedown]

If its something you are interested in, you'll be better off learning to do it all yourself. Make it a bit of a hobby.

It won't be cost effective to do it yourself, but neither will it be to have someone else do it. At least you'll be able to enjoy the process.

But be careful!