How to extract gold from your old gadgets

Most electronic devices contain at least a small amount of pure gold that can be extracted with the right know-how. So before you throw away your old laptop, phone or camera, you might want to consider remove the gold plated elements that are found inside. Josehf Lloyd Murchison, a member of DIY site Instructables, has generously provided the world with a step-by-step guide on how to do this at home.

Things you will need: Scrap electronics / rubber gloves / rubber apron / goggles / hydrogen peroxide 3% / muriatic acid 31% / methyl hydrate 99.9% / funnel filter / 2 large glass containers / glass or plastic stirring stick / weigh scale / blow torch / borax / clay bowl (or any one that has a melting point of 500˚C - above that of gold) / measuring cup

Step 1a) Extracting gold from scraps: Collect any gold-containing metal scraps to which you have access, including jewellery, computer processors, old telephone wiring and gold tooth crowns. Keep in mind that outdated electronics are likelier to produce parts with a high enough level of gold to make the procedure worthwhile.

Step 1b) Extracting gold from scraps: Sort the gold - circuits that need cleaning, gold-plated parts, gold-plated pins, gold fingers and solid gold, large and small. Use a magnet to separate all gold-plated steel, which needs a different process from the demonstration here.

Step 2a) Stripping the gold fingers and clean circuits: Put the gold fingers and clean circuit boards into a coffee pot. In another container, mix 2 parts muriatic acid and 1 part hydrogen peroxide and add the mixture into the coffee pot until it just covers the scraps.

Step 2b) Stripping the gold fingers and clean circuits: Wait a week and give the mixture in the coffee pot a daily stir. While waiting, you can move on to processing your solid low grade gold parts.

Step 3) Your scale: Murchison says that his RCBS scale is accurate to 1/10th of a grain when set up right. Remember to zero your scale for the most accurate measurements.

Step 4a) Cupellation: Cupellation is a process where ores or alloyed metals are treated under high temperatures and controlled operations to separate noble metals, like gold and silver, from base metals like led, copper, zinc, and others present in the ore or alloyed metal. 'The process cannot separate silver from gold, but this is good enough for me,' says Murchison.

Step 4b) Cupellation: Weigh the solid pieces of low grade gold, burn the crap out of it until you get no more slag and it becomes a nice bright yellow bead, and then you weigh it after it cools.

Step 5a) Gold flakes and dust: A week has passed and it is time to collect your gold flakes and dust from your cleaned gold fingers and circuits. After a week the acid darkens and with a stir the flakes of gold can be seen floating around in the pot.

Step 5b) Gold flakes and dust: Pour the acid into a coffee filter. The acid passes through the filter, leaving the gold behind. Do not get rid of the acid just yet.

Step 5c) Gold flakes and dust: Dump the remaining gold fingers and circuits into a deep plastic tray and add water, sort out the cleaned gold parts, put the cleaned parts in the water and save the un-cleaned parts for re-dipping.

Step 5d) Gold flakes and dust: After you have sorted the circuit board parts, pour the water off through the coffee filter and flush with methyl hydrate to clean. Since the methyl hydrate is 99.9% methyl alcohol, it cleans and dries the gold flakes better and faster than water. Water will cling to the gold flakes and give you a false weight.

Step 6a) Using borax with your salvaged gold: The Borax Method is a technique of artisanal gold mining, with its basis in the principle that borax reduces the melting point of all minerals, including precious metals like gold. The melting point of gold is 1,063˚C, which is a higher temperature than can be obtained by cheap torches and burners.

Step 6b) Using borax with your salvaged gold: By adding borax to the heavy mineral concentrate, the melting point temperature decreases, allowing people to melt gold out of their concentrate and salvage. By using borax, no mercury flour is produced, and gold recovery increases.

Step 7a) Melting your gold flakes: Take your cleaned gold flakes and weigh them - this tells you how much weight you will lose in the melting. Heat your clay bowl and don't worry if the bowl cracks or splits.

Step 7b) Melting your gold flakes: Add borax to the hot bowl. When the borax melts, add the gold flakes and more borax then heat until you get a nice bead of gold.

Step 7c) Melting your gold flakes: Let the bead of gold cool and weigh to see how much of it was lost in the melting.

Step 8) Gold: There you have it - gold from electronics... Somewhere between 600 and 1600 bucks for 3 months' work. I think I will retire.

This guide first appeared on Instructables (http://www.instructables.com/id/Gold-recovery) and was reproduced with permission from J