Can CPU Gold Be Direct Smelted? Electronics Recycling & Urban Mining For Precious Metals!

Ғылым және технология

Experimenting with direct smelting of CPU's for gold and precious metals recovery. Trying to find a fast, cheap, and easy way to recovery the gold and other precious metals from CPU's and electronics without using acids.
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Пікірлер: 887

  • @catch22frubert
    @catch22frubert4 жыл бұрын

    Yeah, there's definitely silver in the CPU. If you want to separate just the gold, then crush everything to a powder, pour on some nitric acid to make silver nitrate, and the gold will be completely isolated at that point and you can smelt it out

  • @chrism4008

    @chrism4008

    Жыл бұрын

    Its not really that simple, and there are some real safety considerations using that method

  • @MyScreenNameIsTroubledOne

    @MyScreenNameIsTroubledOne

    10 ай бұрын

    @@chrism4008I mean, that’s the basic gist of it tho. Burn, crush, separate the gold with nitric. What else is there?

  • @maximooze3196

    @maximooze3196

    9 ай бұрын

    @@MyScreenNameIsTroubledOne😂

  • @Mrbfgray

    @Mrbfgray

    3 ай бұрын

    @@MyScreenNameIsTroubledOne Just don't forget to hire the neighbor's child to carryout the hazardous duties, for your own safety.

  • @ROSS4422

    @ROSS4422

    2 күн бұрын

    It's not easy. There is tin in the solder, the tin forms a gel when dissolved in nitric acid. This makes it very difficult to isolate and filter the gold. Also the fumes are horrible and you need a fume hood. I've processed gold and silver using acids. It's fun, but it's not easy.

  • @seanfoltz7645
    @seanfoltz76453 жыл бұрын

    Most people use chemicals to reclaim the gold - I think it would be interesting to have you hook up with, say Cody's Lab, and have you both start with the same amount and type of computer parts to see which method is more cost effective and efficient.

  • @FlyingSeaMan256

    @FlyingSeaMan256

    3 жыл бұрын

    The answer to both of those questions would have to be chemicals in my mind, due to that being the main method for reclaiming precious metals all over the periodic table from many major reclamation facilities

  • @dont.ripfuller6587

    @dont.ripfuller6587

    3 жыл бұрын

    It takes money to make money , since I want to make money , first , I hopeave to take money... Right?

  • @mikeprice4079

    @mikeprice4079

    2 жыл бұрын

    Uuuuuuu

  • @fumertonb

    @fumertonb

    2 жыл бұрын

    sreetips>Codylab

  • @Hoosierdaddyjones812

    @Hoosierdaddyjones812

    2 жыл бұрын

    The chemicals to do the process in most cases like this cost more then the gold or silver is worth

  • @ctsax64
    @ctsax643 жыл бұрын

    As an IT professional and a Silver and Gold stacker, I really enjoyed this video. Please do more. Awesome!

  • @drjones762

    @drjones762

    3 жыл бұрын

    Have you given thought to somehow extracting PM’s from old client gear? Doesn’t seem there’s enough in computers, servers, etc. for it to be worth it, unless you have thousands & thousands of machines. Thoughts?

  • @David_Quinn_Photography

    @David_Quinn_Photography

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@drjones762 I only pull the pins/pads off dead CPUs/ram/mobo and get a small baggy full then I send the rest to a local ewaste guy who breaks it down even more then sends me a small bit of cash from whatever metal value he gets out of it. he's able to make a living off it somehow IDK what extra you can do other than soak it in chemicals.

  • @ronaldpalma8469
    @ronaldpalma84693 жыл бұрын

    I've worked in the semiconductor analysis industry and the largest source of silver in these CPUs is the silver glass die attach that is used to connect the CPU chip to the ceramic package.

  • @beebob1279

    @beebob1279

    3 жыл бұрын

    Is there any way to separate the silver from the gold and end up with both?

  • @chrism4008

    @chrism4008

    Жыл бұрын

    ​@@beebob1279yes, but its time consuming and you need dangerous acids and probably an electrolysis cell

  • @beebob1279
    @beebob12793 жыл бұрын

    Interesting. The cone technique is similar to purifying beeswax. the wax floats to the tip while the heavy stuff sinks below. I am learning a lot from your channel. Thank you for doing these.

  • @richardarmstrong3rd53
    @richardarmstrong3rd534 жыл бұрын

    @mbmmllc The silver you got came from Silver solder, silver/lead, silver/tin or silver/gold is usually used in these types of components. I hope that this helps answer your question.

  • @digger105337

    @digger105337

    4 жыл бұрын

    Gotta send it to sreetips, he l sort it out!

  • @surebrec5113

    @surebrec5113

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@digger105337 sreetips is the man, he must have a ton of money tied up in gold/silver right now.

  • @maga_q_anon8384

    @maga_q_anon8384

    4 жыл бұрын

    Id say silver solder

  • @racecar2933

    @racecar2933

    4 жыл бұрын

    I know that the plate he thought was aluminum was/should have been a silver plated copper plate.

  • @sarahlarick8720

    @sarahlarick8720

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@surebrec5113 have you seen what he charges for an ounce of that crystalized silver hes got the dow to do what EVER he waNTS lol i looked yesterday for a little over an ounce of double refined silver was 1250 U.S.$$

  • @Darkmattersfrank
    @Darkmattersfrank3 жыл бұрын

    Thank you for sharing your journey of discovery with this metal smelting. Its very enjoyable to watch the process trial and error and success.

  • @jeffpelkey8528
    @jeffpelkey85283 ай бұрын

    Jason thanks so much for providing the informative and step-by-step videos that you have shared with us as a community! I struggled to understand why I wasn’t capturing the amount of precious metals that were listed in the assays. Your “Smelting 101” series allowed me to understand how to deal with sulfides and recover the almost 100% of the PM’s. Your sharing of your knowledge has been a huge blessing! Thank You Jeff.

  • @mbmmllc

    @mbmmllc

    3 ай бұрын

    Thank you so much Jeff! I'm glad you are finding the info useful and applicable. More vids to come

  • @williammiller7362
    @williammiller73624 жыл бұрын

    That was a cool experiment. I'd like to see you do more smelting of ewaste, for example BGA chips, ICU chips, RAM sticks. Good Job!

  • @sailingsolar

    @sailingsolar

    3 жыл бұрын

    He just did CPU's but need way more than 4. That plating is about 20 atoms or less thick

  • @redbaronrefining5322

    @redbaronrefining5322

    3 жыл бұрын

    I’m processing almost 100 pounds of icy chips right now and I’m really wishing that instead of having to pan out all of the powder slowly, I could throw it all into a huge crucible with flux and get it down to a button. It would make life so much easier. I would love to send you guys a sample to run and see what you guys to come up with if you want to make another video!

  • @Sir.RickParker949

    @Sir.RickParker949

    2 жыл бұрын

    He is very good at smelting which is a artwork of it's own "an acquired skill" through trial and error he has developed his skill to Near perfection. I was Entriqued by my brother Tony retired U.S.S. furnaces area manager.Computers control every aspect of the chemistry, unlike the operators of the past.

  • @TheManormen

    @TheManormen

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@redbaronrefining5322 try a blue bowel

  • @overlybroadcast3952

    @overlybroadcast3952

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@redbaronrefining5322 would nitric acid not dissolve the silicon powder?

  • @alvinjastrzebski3270
    @alvinjastrzebski32704 жыл бұрын

    Nice video. Here's a tip that I use for my black sand magnet. I put a speaker magnet in a margarine tub and tape the lid tight. To use it, I put the bottom of the tub in the pan. Then I quickly lift it up so that the magnet hits the roof of the tub. This makes a temporary gap between the bottom of the tub and the magnet, which releases the black sand into a separate container. It's cheaper, bigger and faster than the small magnets with the plunger that you press to release the black sand.

  • @johnblair8146
    @johnblair81464 жыл бұрын

    Silver bearing solder is used to join package components together. Don't forget the rest of the PC. Newer hard drives have PGMs and the other ICs have gold bonding wires and lead frames as well as the gold plated fingers and slot connectors.

  • @victorjubinville5720

    @victorjubinville5720

    2 ай бұрын

    As per 1 comment I would definitely try older CPUs memory chips & circuit boards. I like this method of reclaiming over hazardous chemicals.

  • @johnh8615
    @johnh86154 жыл бұрын

    Your like the Sreetips of elemental furnace. He does it chemistry style (real good and pure) . Please more of this with your assaying style. There’s not anyone out there doing this like you. More thanks.😍

  • @genehunsinger3981

    @genehunsinger3981

    2 жыл бұрын

    great minds think alike

  • @cockpill
    @cockpill4 жыл бұрын

    Nice job! There’s a lot of silver inside of ceramics, which is why nitric acid is used to leech the silver first when doing it chemically. I’d say crush them finer, acid can get into the big pieces, but I don’t know if the molten metal will flow out as easy.

  • @ericrhetta8412
    @ericrhetta8412 Жыл бұрын

    I wanted to say that you have an amazing way of teaching that speaks to me. Disabled USMC Vet here that is looking into urban mining and your videos have helped so much in my planning. I hope to maybe get some equipment from you in the future. Greetings from Oly, WA!

  • @VashStarwind

    @VashStarwind

    Жыл бұрын

    Just wanna say that you could make more money off old pc parts by selling them on ebay than doing this! ha

  • @adventuresinmetals7636
    @adventuresinmetals76364 жыл бұрын

    It's really cool to see all these different kind of recovery methods than most of the other ewaste channels.

  • @MegaZidzid
    @MegaZidzid3 жыл бұрын

    Any way of recovery that excludes acids is great. 👍

  • @hateonskillz318

    @hateonskillz318

    2 жыл бұрын

    Look up SHOR international they have a seasalt extraction its not really seasalt but they say no prior knowledge of refining says its easy and recovers 99.97% but isn't cheap like 1000 plus the solution they use in the system is sold spereratly so I'd say at least 1200 so it's expensive but doest require acids says it's easy to use just follow instructions sounds a little to good to be true but at 1000+ I'd say you better get what they advertise

  • @davidlester6673
    @davidlester6673 Жыл бұрын

    That was probably the best way I have seen to at least get to the metal part of those cpu's and definitely the cleanest method I have seen without all the cpu dust.

  • @ursamines7643
    @ursamines76434 жыл бұрын

    Great video and I think you hit it on the head with your post-melt thoughts.

  • @ChrisStPierre
    @ChrisStPierre4 жыл бұрын

    It really is fascinating to see the process. Ty.

  • @eternalbordome
    @eternalbordome4 жыл бұрын

    That little mill of yours is pretty cool. It is, by all intents and purposes, a flower mill. It works literally the same way

  • @pappawheely

    @pappawheely

    2 жыл бұрын

    yup

  • @HedgehogOutdoors
    @HedgehogOutdoors2 жыл бұрын

    It is very weird seeing an XRF reader used outside my industry. We used it in paper manufacturing to test for concentration of silicone. Basically, when you have a sticker, the backing is siliconized. We had to have an appropriate amount of silicone, which was measured by our XRF. We also did linerless paper, which had silicone on the face, and adhesive on the back. It would stick to itself just enough to make rolls, but peel apart without requiring a backing

  • @fabiandennis1247
    @fabiandennis12472 жыл бұрын

    i total respect your approach.. hopefully i can break into this industry soon with your equipment

  • @ProspectorTripp
    @ProspectorTripp2 жыл бұрын

    CPU’s have silver and gold from my experience. Usually I lightly burn, crush, dilute nitric to remove silver and base, Aqua Regia the remaining material, drop gold with SMB. Cement out silver with copper. I’ve been experimenting with the cupel process to reduce my acid cost and waste. There’s no super shortcuts as best as I can determine so far. A few times I have used this process up to removing the base with dilute nitric, then picked out as much as possible the ceramic material and junk silicone chips then directly cupeled. It works fairly well but the cost seems to be a wash and sometimes I will get crud on top while cupeling which will have some gold caught up in it. I Still get a bead or two of gold, but will Crush the crud and put in a pan and gently blow off the very light powders and cupel the remaining material again. Thanks Jason having fun with the process. ✌️PT

  • @ProjectHazy
    @ProjectHazy2 жыл бұрын

    This has been the easiest way I have ever seen I am very appreciative of this new knowledge.

  • @CKILBY-zu7fq
    @CKILBY-zu7fq2 жыл бұрын

    From my experience dealing with these type of materials. I watched all types of electronics change in their composition, from 18k solid metals to cost saving manufacturing techniques, which used the metal silver as a base metal for pins and so on, which the gold plated. With a heavy gold plate. Not a flash gold look that rubs of with one use like most manufactures today, So, I have handled millions of computer chips. I still have some that are rare and heavily cited in gold. As well as some very heavy duty diods. These computer chips generate electricity for every leg of the chip when exposed to light. But anyway, what you probably recieved was a later model of chip from the 90s to today. It could be older. But the metal content you recieved shows the percentage of metals used to make these chips. But, whats important here is the cost per how many chips to process. And what can you yield. What you are showing is very cool. I wish I was there actually participating in this type of study. I actually helped in the reclaiming of silver from one dirt into 5 gal glass bottles. Throught the vacume filter process. I think its all a very interesting process. After watching several of your videos. I think you might be the kind of person that could do and be interested in making somthing that I keep secret. For good reason. However. The main reason I keep it secret is, because I can't prove it unless I do it first. Thats where I noticed that you have the place and skills to do an awsome job on this type of project. It could be an eye opener. And fun, It could even bring revenue of sorts. But also it could make a great KZread Learning video . And it will answer a great ancient question concerning alchemy still not realized by man today. Ok brother. Keep up the cool work. Let me know if you want to ?

  • @joerenaud8292

    @joerenaud8292

    Жыл бұрын

    I found this comment by you interesting.'These computer chips generate electricity for every leg of the chip when exposed to light.' Are you saying that these chips without being powered electrically can still generate electricity by themselves? Is there evidence of this that can be confirmed?And what in your opinion causes this phenomena?

  • @CKILBY-zu7fq

    @CKILBY-zu7fq

    Жыл бұрын

    @@joerenaud8292 Yes brother, they might have one leg that is ground. But , each leg give off power when exposed to light. Different voltages I don't know exactly how its done, but what i do know, is that there is a clear window on top , and when you look into it. You can see a small ,, I would say another chip with tiny gold wires spideeing out form it. So its like a solar chip ? Light sensitivity device. I have 4 storage units full of stuff. But these are in there. I don't know exactly where they are or id take fotos of them and their part numbers and send them to you. Ok. Peace, have a great day.

  • @lisakaye3935
    @lisakaye39352 жыл бұрын

    I have so many harvested parts and I’m not sure who to trust enough to send it off to melt down. Ultimately, I would love to do this. So thanks for sharing!

  • @groovynelson1575
    @groovynelson15756 ай бұрын

    I have no suggestions except thanks for posting this video. Pretty darn cool what we can find in our own back yard...Have a good one.

  • @williampinson1125
    @williampinson11252 жыл бұрын

    Silver is probably from intermediate platings of contacts, the steel covers, and from internal solder joints. Gold wires are essentially pressure-welded to the contact points on the wafer inside the IC, but are likely soldered to the lead frame (not lead as in Pb but lead as in terminal), which is the frame of the IC body that has the external connections. Since the IC has to be able to be soldered at normal PCBA soldering heat profiles, any internal solder connections has to be done with much higher temp solder, which would likely contain silver.

  • @cheesynuts4291
    @cheesynuts42913 жыл бұрын

    It’s funny but I saw a bunch of guys on the Refining forums saying that you can’t reliably smelt gold pens. Looks like you did great to me.

  • @drinventions9742
    @drinventions97424 жыл бұрын

    The big shiny plate was aluminum,, it’s a heat sink, there was a smaller plate that was gold plated steel, all the gold plated pin on the CPU are magnetic so there’s another source of iron, the silicon chip does contain trace amounts of gold, the ceramic body will have either gold or silver bonded wires, on most CPU’s , they have monolithic ceramic capacitors attached to them, this is where you got your trace amount of palladium plus small amounts of silver

  • @goranaxelsson1409

    @goranaxelsson1409

    4 жыл бұрын

    Finally, someone knowing what they are talking about!

  • @damianbutterworth2434
    @damianbutterworth24342 жыл бұрын

    My first job was at Marconi in the 80`s. They looked like the same type of chips we made. We made all sorts from telephone dialling chips to space SOS chips. The cheap ones use epoxy to attach the dies and ali wires bonds and the more expensive ones used gold to attach the die and gold wire bonds. Never heard of any silver being used back then.

  • @danyalam2465
    @danyalam24654 жыл бұрын

    hey man thank you for your wonderful video ♥

  • @ContriteBiggs
    @ContriteBiggs3 жыл бұрын

    2:03 “like looking at the suns surface. Pretty cool footage!

  • @Alacritous
    @Alacritous4 жыл бұрын

    I used to work for an electronics recycling company. We kept our eyes out for particular brands and classes of chips that we then melted down and smelted the gold from. It was worth our time, but we went through tons and tons of material over the course of a year. And this was in '99-2001. a lot of the older chips were very large dies and the circuit designs and manufacturing weren't as optimized as they are these days and so had more material in them than chips from more recent generations.

  • @donpalmer4155
    @donpalmer41552 жыл бұрын

    Great video! Learned a lot from it as well as the comments below. Thank You All!

  • @shaneyork300
    @shaneyork3004 жыл бұрын

    I'm not a refiner, but my understanding of Ewaste or the CPU's is that it's plated with 8 to 10k Gold. If it's karat gold sometimes they put silver in that. I know they usually use copper, and white gold has silver, platinum and or paladium. Have a GREAT Day!!!

  • @music-jn3wn

    @music-jn3wn

    4 жыл бұрын

    not correct. the plating is almost pure gold. .995.

  • @shutupsitdownandhangon

    @shutupsitdownandhangon

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@music-jn3wn They don't use pure gold because it's too soft. If it were pure gold, you could just scrap it off because it would be soft enough to do that.

  • @goranaxelsson1409

    @goranaxelsson1409

    4 жыл бұрын

    The plating is between 98 and 99.5% pure, some cobalt is added to increase the hardness in places where you need higher hardness.

  • @shaneyork300

    @shaneyork300

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@music-jn3wn Many test on many different computer parts have been done. The highest purity was from the 80's and 90's computers and the most was 12k or 50%!! After the gold is recovered it's 8k, 10k or sometimes 12k then you'll see people refine it to 98% to 99% on rare occasions you can get 99.9% pure on the first refining, most of the time it takes a second refining to get it to three 9's fine or 99.9% pure gold!!

  • @shaneyork300

    @shaneyork300

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@goranaxelsson1409 Many test on many different computer parts have been done the highest purity was from the 80's and 90's computers and the most was 12k or 50%! After the gold is recovered, it's 8k, 10k, or sometimes 12k, then you'll see people refine it to 98% - 99%. On rare occasions, you can get 99.9% pure on the first refining. Most of the time it takes a second refining to get it to three 9's fine, or 99.9% pure gold!

  • @palandasghodeswar6169
    @palandasghodeswar61692 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for sharing valuable information about Gold Smelting .

  • @kouroshjavanbakht3790
    @kouroshjavanbakht37904 жыл бұрын

    Hi Silver comes from solders that connect the pins to the CPU. Gold amount is what those 4 CPUs should have. Cool video.

  • @rondonahue5509
    @rondonahue5509 Жыл бұрын

    Great video, many people push there rifined gold to high purity? Not nessary, the silver is the main conductor and gold stop corrosion. Great process and not harsh chemicals. I'm going to use your techniques for sure. Thanks 👍

  • @whereasthepeople27
    @whereasthepeople272 жыл бұрын

    Nice job bro. Really help full

  • @joemamans8365
    @joemamans836511 ай бұрын

    Finally a person that does it logicly w/household materials, the lead is a great idea for the collection metal, I GOTTA GIVE TO YA let it be known thanks to u we're gona be financialy stable! Thanks. Maybe u can show us how to xtract platinum from catalic converters. Keep it on.

  • @randypinchbeck6916
    @randypinchbeck69163 жыл бұрын

    Awesome lesson. I have a boxful of chips and cpu s but none of the skills. Just a couple days ago I said outloud I wish I could find out how to smelt vs the ugly dirty chemical processes I've seen. Thanks for this. subscribed. I'm just north of the Canuck border in BC. Grew up prospecting with my dad. Just retired and heading back to that way of life.

  • @russtill403
    @russtill4033 жыл бұрын

    keep up the good work m8,great vids.

  • @FollowMe2aMillion
    @FollowMe2aMillion4 жыл бұрын

    The silver comes from the solder. The pins themselves are gold plated kovar which is a magnetic iron alloy. All in all I think it was a success. Definitely want to remove aluminium top. Thanks for the video.

  • @michaellitchford9285
    @michaellitchford92852 жыл бұрын

    Very interesting always wondered the steps and procedures to smelting

  • @eWasteBen
    @eWasteBen4 жыл бұрын

    I like your channel mate, keep at it

  • @mbmmllc

    @mbmmllc

    4 жыл бұрын

    Thanks Ben! Glad to have you on board

  • @zacholson4230

    @zacholson4230

    3 жыл бұрын

    You both rock! 🤟🏻

  • @NandiCollector

    @NandiCollector

    3 жыл бұрын

    I'm addicted to booth of your channels. :)

  • @socaltravelball
    @socaltravelball2 жыл бұрын

    Good work. You got me wanting to learn how to do this.

  • @jasong8377
    @jasong83774 жыл бұрын

    Awesome video maybe grind the chips to powder first then pull out magnetic stuff then melt

  • @mrgreenswelding2853
    @mrgreenswelding28534 жыл бұрын

    Yes they are silicone dies. A great demonstration Jason! Keep up the fantastic work.

  • @RunningGrass-we7tm
    @RunningGrass-we7tm4 жыл бұрын

    I really liked this video, my dad did this for 20 years, us kids had to cut the little gold spikes, and he used acid and the gold turned into gold flakes

  • @joegen280
    @joegen280 Жыл бұрын

    I used KCN to strip Au off of Kovar based dust covers. Involved process using many chemicals. Wish I remembered. Was back in 1990. Fun job as a chemist out of college.

  • @sharkscrapper
    @sharkscrapper3 жыл бұрын

    I really enjoy your channel. A very interesting video. thank you

  • @idontknowmyfirstname69
    @idontknowmyfirstname693 жыл бұрын

    Just found your channel. Enjoyed the video. Just wanted to point out, most of that iron came from the cpu pins. They are steel clad in gold usually on the ceramic cpus

  • @johnhayes8557

    @johnhayes8557

    8 ай бұрын

    The pins on some CPUs are copper alloy. If they're CuBe, be careful!

  • @CrucesNomad1
    @CrucesNomad13 жыл бұрын

    Neat process. I need a few more things to do what you do. I would chemically treat it to get the fine gold.

  • @OwlTech333
    @OwlTech3334 жыл бұрын

    Loved the video! Well done mate!

  • @mbmmllc

    @mbmmllc

    4 жыл бұрын

    Thanks Owl

  • @featheredskeptic1301
    @featheredskeptic1301 Жыл бұрын

    The only place I can think of that may have silver in a CPU would be the solder used for the decoupling capacitors of the chip. They typically are on the bottom, under that metal plate surrounded by the gold plated pins. This would also explain the palladium in the final sample as these capacitors do contain a very small amount of palladium. EDIT: The pins are also soldered to the chip. That is an additional source of silver.

  • @TechGorilla1987
    @TechGorilla19874 жыл бұрын

    I am enjoying the frequent uploads! I would love to work on your small crushing equipment. It would be something else to change out a die with, at most, a small come-along. The largest die we ever flipped was a primary at a quarry that ran about 7 tons. I enjoyed it but I don't miss it. I'll bet there isn't ONE computer screen on your solid-ass equipment.

  • @jamesstevens2362
    @jamesstevens23622 жыл бұрын

    Thank you, this was really good info! People have been asking about using smelting for gold recovery on a particular gold reclamation forum, and members have insisted it can’t be done. You’ve proven them wrong! It can be done!!

  • @thomas30dk
    @thomas30dk2 жыл бұрын

    This is really interesting. I would like to compare notes with anyone to improve tactics on these cou as well as I am holding a few hundred telecom tower motherboards that hold a lot, a LOT of gold 🪙 but just running CPU's now to refine and adjust game plan. Thanks for the upload. Thomas, Denmark

  • @Hobypyrocom
    @Hobypyrocom4 жыл бұрын

    just found your channel, watched tons of your videos and subscribed... good stuff, keep up the good work man and best wishes... one question, is there any way to recover the lead from those used cupel's?

  • @saintcrispan5068

    @saintcrispan5068

    3 жыл бұрын

    I actually looked it up, there are research papers written, but they're written by treehuggers who just want to neutralize the environmental threat from lead. Translation: yeah, but unless you're a tree hugger, it's more expensive than it's worth...

  • @music-jn3wn
    @music-jn3wn4 жыл бұрын

    silver is in the solder for the pins. Always a nice bonus when processing chips.

  • @MysteryScienceTheater-uq9ht

    @MysteryScienceTheater-uq9ht

    4 жыл бұрын

    Yeah, I was thinking Kovar pins, silver solder. But where is the Palladium used?

  • @music-jn3wn

    @music-jn3wn

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@MysteryScienceTheater-uq9ht ceramic capacitors

  • @brianherhold675
    @brianherhold6753 жыл бұрын

    Very interesting, keep it up!

  • @martkbanjoboy8853
    @martkbanjoboy88532 жыл бұрын

    This is so educational. Love your chan!

  • @philipandrew1626
    @philipandrew16262 жыл бұрын

    The Silver comes from the bond wires that connect the terminals on the Silicon chip die to the CPU package internal terminals. The CPU package external terminals (pins) are gold coated.

  • @smittymcjob2582
    @smittymcjob25822 жыл бұрын

    I was on a video watching some guy melting aluminum cans into bars and it suddenly occurred to me I could be high class watching someone melting gold, and so here I am among you fine high society folks.

  • @svenp6504
    @svenp65044 жыл бұрын

    I agree, the powdered ceramic (alumina) should dissolve in your flux. On it's own it has a super high melting point. I think iron and maybe nickel is used some cpu pins. All I know is they're often magnetic. Is there anything you can add to the flux that will oxidize iron/nickel so that it doesn't end up in the lead? Seems like this method got a very nice recovery... great video.

  • @kylestrokelitus360

    @kylestrokelitus360

    Жыл бұрын

    when i did a direct smelt from 1960s electronics (heavy gold plating) I was shocked after I direct smelted my lead button --> because this is exactly what happened to my surprise. The iron nickel eded up in the lead button. When I cupelled out my large lead button, my cuppellation process was a disaster due to all of this teal in color steel.... JASON whats is the best way to oxidise out the iron / nickel in the smelting process..... I used chapmans flux 190g, plated pins 64g, and 110g borax, I left the smelt boil for about 30 minutes at 2200 and figured all the steel would be in my slag, and this was definitely not what happened!!! HELP!!!

  • @kylestrokelitus360

    @kylestrokelitus360

    Жыл бұрын

    JASON HELPPP!!!!

  • @mikeybigfoot1354
    @mikeybigfoot13542 жыл бұрын

    This this video was amazing thank you

  • @joekerr6874
    @joekerr68742 жыл бұрын

    Old chips like those, looking to be mid 90's to early 2000's, well they mainly used silver leads and pins that were gold plated. Newer ones use aluminum alloys often instead of silver. You have to realize, through the 90's into early 2000's silver was at all-time lowest prices, some spot prices as low as ~$3 an oz. During that period, gold was relatively low, too, around ~$300 - $350 per oz. So it made more sense to use the cheap silver (which was cheaper often at the time than copper) as a base, & gold plate it. That era, you mainly saw solid gold pins/leads only in aeronautical, military, aerospace, and high-end industrial electronics applications.

  • @bloomingtonian7529
    @bloomingtonian75294 жыл бұрын

    I'm really enjoying these smelting videos. Keep them coming.

  • @bobwerner6512
    @bobwerner65123 жыл бұрын

    I think you did some good thinking on this good on ya

  • @rydplrs71
    @rydplrs714 жыл бұрын

    The chips were silicon, you need 1200c to enter the glass phase. There were also many areas of silicide (silicon/metal) with a variety of precious metal. Ti, Cu, Pt, W, Au, Ag, Co are almost guaranteed to be involved. Plus a handful of other random ones based on the manufacturer. There’s something awe inspiring about carrying a million dollars in gold, platinum or palladium, with a 500k core deposit. Volume and quality wise I’m wondering if you would have been better off just clipping the bonding wires.

  • @richardoconnor7162
    @richardoconnor71624 жыл бұрын

    All the solder is silver solder, Pd came from tiny chips (can not think of name at 4am). Use heat to drop the pins and plates off then crush the chips. Some of the heat spreader plates have gold plating under the solder layer also.

  • @gyrgrls
    @gyrgrls2 жыл бұрын

    Working in a Quonset Hut! I love it!

  • @3DPT
    @3DPT3 жыл бұрын

    Silver is used in solder for electronics, so the CPU had a lot of sliver. Their may be some gold plated wiring depending on the pins and thickness of the chip. You'd have to pull up the specs for each chip to find the Au / Ag content.

  • @briandriver301

    @briandriver301

    Жыл бұрын

    Most solder is a eutectic tin/lead allow. Silver solder is only used sparingly and then, only in high- temp areas.

  • @russsherwood5978
    @russsherwood59784 жыл бұрын

    that was the first time i saw them done that way, the way i saw it done before was the cpu was incenerated, then crushed, then a magnet ran over the powder, it was soaked in a acid solution to get out the pms, this was a fun video had my fingers crossed that this would be a safer, faster way, and it looks like it was to me, just have to scale this up,. thank you for the info. be strong, be safe, and be blessed

  • @nickyaero

    @nickyaero

    4 жыл бұрын

    russ sherwood CPU you mentioned is ics different from ceramic cpu in this video mostly you will lose plating any kind of metal except platinum groups The assaying method recovery is mainly done for low grade stuff

  • @alvinjastrzebski3270
    @alvinjastrzebski32704 жыл бұрын

    Hi again. I was wondering if you used nitrogen to freeze the cpus first and then crushed them, would it pulverize easier? Also, would the brittle copper separate easier from the softer gold plate? You've already done the crushing and shaker table test so you already have half the experiment done already. Thanks again for the interesting videos.

  • @andrewdavis6012
    @andrewdavis60123 жыл бұрын

    In the 90s missiles had gold wiring and some computer's but after the price of gold got above $500 that all changed to silver has very good conductivity ,wiring mostly

  • @alexej01
    @alexej014 жыл бұрын

    Older CPUs and some of the new ones use solder for heat transfer between the die and the integrated heat spreader (that metal plate). That's where the silver could've come from.

  • @fredericktex

    @fredericktex

    3 жыл бұрын

    I thought it was mostly indium in that solder?

  • @showandgo
    @showandgo4 жыл бұрын

    I wish I can send you all the CPUs so you can do your experiment. Cool video, thanks for explaining.

  • @royalrefiningllc

    @royalrefiningllc

    3 жыл бұрын

    Feel free to contact me if you are interested in recovering the previous metals from your ceramic CPUs

  • @joek511
    @joek5114 жыл бұрын

    The CPUs' if done right, the average yeild is about .3 grams of Au each. I did it about 5 years for a salvage company. The cap is a nickle alloy, about 50% highly magnetic. Bad move leaving that in. Why did I stop? Frankly, todays electronics are not worth the effort. Even fiber CPUs' with gold pins, not worth it. They yeild about 2 bucks per pound. As in, you have 1 pound of them remove the pins. that being said, anyone looking to buy stuff like that on E bay, you will likely loose a whole lot of money

  • @laharl2k

    @laharl2k

    4 жыл бұрын

    joe k Im sure you can get more than 2 bucks from a restored retro machine. 486/pentium/mmx. And im sure it weights less than a pound.

  • @amanawolf9166

    @amanawolf9166

    3 жыл бұрын

    Eeyup, the older stuff had more gold in it compared to the newer stuff. Seen videos/images of components from the 70's and 80's that were huge and probably had a good bit of gold in it. Now, like you say, it's hardly worth the effort.

  • @magmasunburst9331

    @magmasunburst9331

    3 жыл бұрын

    What years did it start to go bad?

  • @fightington

    @fightington

    11 ай бұрын

    ​@@magmasunburst9331 when gold was an expensive choice, about when the banks started f'ing the economy more than usual

  • @joek511

    @joek511

    4 ай бұрын

    @@magmasunburst9331 I know it's been 3 years, but about 2000. From then till about 2010 you could get a fair amount, but only from very specific parts. Expantion cards, ram and flatback chips Had a fair amount in gold fingers and gold wires. The change is due in part to size. Today you don't even need a network card, it's on the board and about the size of your finger nail. That's one example. Instead of 50 chips all doing different things it might be only 5 doing it all

  • @nickyaero
    @nickyaero4 жыл бұрын

    The recovery is done in two stages , first treated with nitric to remove base metals , then treated with aquea Regia after the left over ceramic dried and ball milled not hammer milled (1kgs minimum ) again treated with aquae regia , you can pan it see to see the powder has the precious metal and sure it has any way good job

  • @Alondro77

    @Alondro77

    3 жыл бұрын

    Nitric will also dissolve away the silver. I tend to use a low amount of weak hydrochloric first to eat up the base metals, let it sit for a while so the silver and copper reduce back as the base metals are mostly used up. THEN I add 1M nitric to take away the copper and silver. What's left is a mixture of insoluble oxides, silicates, and platinum group metals. After that, it's easy to hit it with hot aqua and dissolve the platinum group. Cool and neutralize with urea and let sit for a day, all the platinum, iridium, and rhodium will just fall out as a fine grey powder which is easily recovered and washed. Then warm metabisulfite solution with warmed auric chloride, and you swiftly get a spongy gold mass with over 99% recovery!

  • @DeathValleyDazed

    @DeathValleyDazed

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@Alondro77 - thanks for explaining your recipe!

  • @blindluck3643

    @blindluck3643

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@Alondro77 do you have a video on your complete method, with equipment, chemicals and proper ratios?

  • @johnhayes8557
    @johnhayes85578 ай бұрын

    Given enough chips, ot could scale up into recovery pf Pd and other PGMs. Rh and Pd/Pt will tend to move with the silver but also can alloy well with gold. Would love to see that video!

  • @gortnewton4765
    @gortnewton47653 жыл бұрын

    The silver is unexpected! Been dealing with semiconductors a long time and would not have thought there'd be that much silver in those chips. My calculation is about $17 for gold from those few chips. Nicely done.

  • @niskaa78

    @niskaa78

    3 жыл бұрын

    But the Motorola 68040 is worth about $40-50 on Ebay, the K6-2 maybe $10-20 and the two IDT ORION 79R4600-100G would be ~$30 each. So he is basically throwing money away by extracting gold from them, reducing a potential income from $100+ to $17 not counting the expenses for equipment, labour etc :)!

  • @briandriver301

    @briandriver301

    Жыл бұрын

    $17 worth of gold. $50 worth of materials to extract it. Lol

  • @jhoughjr1

    @jhoughjr1

    Жыл бұрын

    @@niskaa78 IF you actually have a buyer. Listed on eBay and going are two different things.

  • @patrickstehl6500
    @patrickstehl65002 жыл бұрын

    First time coming across your channel. I am glad I did I will be subscribing. Couple quick questions.... Where did you come across your equipment and what did it run you? And is this your main source of income or is it a hobby? I live in northwestern Arizona, very near the world famous rt66 and the gold bearing town of Oatman. Trying to get into the line of prospecting and am just curious about things like this. Thanks for your time.

  • @spotlobac7694
    @spotlobac76944 жыл бұрын

    thats a good one, these sell for big money on ebay, i know theirs about 5 $ worth of gold not 20 , great video.

  • @frankzahn7773
    @frankzahn77733 жыл бұрын

    I believe the silver came from inside the chips. The legs probably has steal in them. Check them with a magnet . Love your vids. I watch them all for precious metals.

  • @TurkVladimir
    @TurkVladimir Жыл бұрын

    Thanks Great Video

  • @gavinlottering
    @gavinlotteringАй бұрын

    My thinking is that you could get rid of some of the flux. Borate is only needed when there's oxidation; so not sure how lead would work with borate since it doesn't oxidize Maybe try it with just the silica; it might remove the silicone better. Also, removing any steel, aluminum or magnetic pieces with a magnet first would help. I've also seen videos of treating the chips with acid first... Pretty cool process. I'd call the nugget e-waste electrum.

  • @RalphReagan
    @RalphReagan4 жыл бұрын

    Really nice!

  • @NickMeisher
    @NickMeisher4 жыл бұрын

    Could you do a video where you compare recovery from same sample by use of smelting half of it with lead; and the other half you use the acid recovery?

  • @johnnyb3126
    @johnnyb3126 Жыл бұрын

    Awesome video 📸

  • @runnikcatti5997
    @runnikcatti59974 жыл бұрын

    Great video!

  • @JP-xv3zq
    @JP-xv3zq3 жыл бұрын

    Great video - quite informative. I like that you are avoiding chemicals. Have you considered taking a number of cupelled buttons and remelting them in a small cone mold to see if the atomic weight will seperate the god and silver?

  • @xenaguy01

    @xenaguy01

    2 жыл бұрын

    Gold and silver alloy together when smelted. They must be chemically or electrolytically separated.

  • @sorornishicffbaddcde8567

    @sorornishicffbaddcde8567

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@xenaguy01 The metal could be used to make jewellery. Romans called that alloy Electrum I believe.

  • @pattheplanter

    @pattheplanter

    Жыл бұрын

    @@sorornishicffbaddcde8567 Used in the first coins we know about, from 600 BC Lydia.

  • @kyleryan5154
    @kyleryan51543 жыл бұрын

    Dude! You’re the best!

  • @olssonan
    @olssonan3 жыл бұрын

    Just watch out, some of those old CPU's are worth much more on the secondary market then the gold content in them. The Motorola CPU you smashed probably is. Some CPU's are really expensive and hard to find. So look them up before smashing them. :)

  • @kreshokresimir7139

    @kreshokresimir7139

    3 жыл бұрын

    Yeah it was sad seeing the 68040 go.

  • @shaystern2453

    @shaystern2453

    3 жыл бұрын

    all worth squat

  • @claytonmccormick622
    @claytonmccormick6222 жыл бұрын

    and one last thing a lot of the pins have a nickel coating under the gold usually remove the pins with a propane torch then a hard drive magnet can be used to separate the magnetic pins from nonmagnetic as they may need to be processed separately..

  • @judj2875
    @judj28752 жыл бұрын

    All those cpus are only coated with micron of gold. You need a 50 percent nitric solution and some heat to seperate the gold

  • @rhondajones1313
    @rhondajones1313 Жыл бұрын

    Personally I liked your video. I am glad you did this video it answered some of my questions thank you

  • @PoorMiners321
    @PoorMiners3213 жыл бұрын

    thanks for sharing good video sir

  • @Nicolas_Gaming_Tech
    @Nicolas_Gaming_Tech Жыл бұрын

    i was about to be pissed off that you were smelting retro cpu but then i found out they were broken / bent pins so i dont mind. Great and interesting video

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