Gold recovery and refining

[Stoney100 1,179]

Being in the scrap metal trade, I like to look at all aspects of the trade and one side of it I’d like to venture into is precious metals recovery and refining.

Now, obviously I’m not expecting anyone to come on here and tell everyone they have a stack of gold bullion hidden in the garden lol but does anyone on here know anything about getting gold and other metals out old jewellery/phones/laptops etc etc 

ive got a load of ceramic CPU’s here with gold plated pins on that have sat in a shed for the last 3 years and I need to get round to giving it a go. I know it’s basically put them in one acid - leave to soak - put them in another - leave to soak - boil the remaining solution down - smelt the powder that’s left and you have your gold. But there are so many videos online that tell you different ways it gets confusing! 

I’ve been selling bits direct to a company that does it, they will give you the best price possible on circuit boards but they don’t even let you enter the refining site and they won’t tell me f**k all on how to do it lol (don’t blame them as it’s their business) but I do know they expect to make about 85% on whatever they pay for the boards after they have refined them so it must be worth doing in a small scale at home considering I get the boards for free in the first place from the scrap I collect.

This is one of the videos on how to do it by some Chinese people who do this kind of stuff in their own back garden...

If it all makes perfect sense to anyone on here and seems simple enough, if your interested in having a go I’d buy all the stuff needed, get all the materials sorted and go 50/50 on any gold recovered.....in that video they get 6.7g of gold and at current scrap value of £37.63 that’s £252.12 so going by that I’ve probably got about a grand sat in my shed and that company would probably give me £20 at most for it lol

surely it can’t be that hard to get the true value from it all if it’s a backyard trade in China 

Edited November 23, 2019 by Stoney100

[Astanley 11,564]

Gnasher will have a few bits and pieces hanging round from  brinks mat ,see if he'll do you a decent price get you started .

[Stoney100 1,179]

14 minutes ago, Astanley said:

Gnasher will have a few bits and pieces hanging round from  brinks mat ,see if he'll do you a decent price get you started .

Had to google that mate but I’m sure that’s turned in to jewellery now lol a £26 million heist in 1983......doubt they ever worked again! 

[Stoney100 1,179]

3 minutes ago, W. Katchum said:

If your gonna do it, do it right buy a mine somewhere an mine your own

One step at a time mate......I’ll just stick to the grams for now and mining tonnes per day can come later on life lol

[WILF 46,552]

Place near my old shed used to use a shifting table with water running over it, bit like you see in those gold mining programmed.

They would smash all the motherboards to bits and run them through this machine.

Personally, with old IT stuff......don’t f**k about, sell it to the coons in bulk and move along......think of it as a service, you provide hours of work for some 10 year old on a Nairobi rubbish tip.

Edited November 23, 2019 by WILF

[Stoney100 1,179]

2 minutes ago, sid g said:

is there enough  percentage in gold plate to make it worth while ... i deal in gold n silver but they wont take gold plate would this work with silver plate aswell ? 

I think it would mate but you would have to have quite a bit tbh.....scrap silver is only 37p a gram atm so it’s a massive difference!

just gone up to 42p as I typed this lol

[WILF 46,552]

Stoney if I was you, before you get carried away at the gold price, work out how long it takes, the cost of dealing with the chemicals and effluent correctly and disposal of by products/waste.

They catch you f***ing about disposing of chemicals or contaminated waste in the wrong way they will hand you your arse in a plate......those operations are all about scale in my experience mate.

[Stoney100 1,179]

3 minutes ago, WILF said:

Place near my old shed used to use a shifting table with water running over it, bit like you see in those gold mining programmed.

They would smash all the motherboards to bits and run them through this machine.

Personally, with old IT stuff......don’t f**k about, sell it to the coons in bulk and move along......think of it as a service, you provide hours of work for some 10 year old on a Nairobi rubbish tip.

Lol I know what you mean mate, and your right about it all ending up in African tips for kids to earn 50p for 8 hours working breaking it all down!

Crazy really and all just from stuff that we throw away!

I have actually done a bit of business with a Kenyan guy who buys all kinds of shit like that to send over there but never really took him seriously......but like you, other people have said sell to them because there price never drops where as scrap is going down 

[Stoney100 1,179]

4 minutes ago, WILF said:

Stoney if I was you, before you get carried away at the gold price, work out how long it takes, the cost of dealing with the chemicals and effluent correctly and disposal of by products/waste.

They catch you f***ing about disposing of chemicals or contaminated waste in the wrong way they will hand you your arse in a plate......those operations are all about scale in my experience mate.

Fair points mate.....and probably the exact reason it’s a back yard trade in China lol

[Stoney100 1,179]

3 minutes ago, sid g said:

weighed some in last week with a dealer @ 50p but she just sits on it , my nicer bits i take to someone who hykes it round the london shops  once a month ... everyones on it at the min so i`ll leave it till the boots get in the fields next year ..

Yeah I’d imagine it’s worth more as an item than scrap mate, I think it’s only gold and platinum that are worth refining due to the rarity and price. There’s a nice little shop in Leicester city centre that does silver and gold plus old coins, just down an alley near the fruit market.....they seem sound in there, do you know it/them?

[WILF 46,552]

9 minutes ago, Stoney100 said:

Lol I know what you mean mate, and your right about it all ending up in African tips for kids to earn 50p for 8 hours working breaking it all down!

Crazy really and all just from stuff that we throw away!

I have actually done a bit of business with a Kenyan guy who buys all kinds of shit like that to send over there but never really took him seriously......but like you, other people have said sell to them because there price never drops where as scrap is going down 

I used to sell them it by the artic load mate but you got to be hard with them or they will try and f**k you about something terrible......make them show you the money before you unload and make sure they don’t have any money left when you leave.

Edited November 23, 2019 by WILF

[WILF 46,552]

Been a good while since I messed about with a bit of metal, what’s light iron making at the minute?

[Stoney100 1,179]

12 minutes ago, WILF said:

Been a good while since I messed about with a bit of metal, what’s light iron making at the minute?

It’s pretty shit at the min tbh mate......£60-£80 a tonne on light round the midlands but more if you take it to the docks......as I live right in the heart of England that option is f****d for me lol

i only do it as a side line now really, advertise on Facebook/gumtree etc and have my own website plus I’ve found a guy who buys any decent washing machines etc off me to fix and sell and also try and sell anything I can that’s not scrap so it’s all good. Got a car transporter to and no a few breakers who give you a much better price than the scrap yards for decent motors and that helps make a wage to.

I’d love to do it all full time again and if the prices all goes crazy again I will but atm if you just keep getting stuff that’s only scrap and doesn’t have a re use/sell on value it’s hard to make a regular wage for me and another lad out 6 days a week so do some driving work for a mate.....bonus is most nights I have to come home empty so can pick up any scrap I see and normally get a good load a week doing this.

Biggest thing is tho I enjoy doing it, infact I love it lol, and if I keep all my customers happy when it’s down they will all stick with me when it goes back up so I’ll be laughing then.....and it will go up.....it always does eventually and it’s the ones that see it out that benefit the most every time imo.

did you have your own yard then mate? 

[Stoney100 1,179]

32 minutes ago, sid g said:

used to be lads on leics antique market on a weds buy gold ... 

I don’t know if it’s me just noticing them more while it’s in my thoughts lol but I seem to be seeing gold shops all over the place! 

I read somewhere that there’s only about 200 tonnes of natural gold left to be feasibly mined and about another 25 ton that could be panned/extracted from rivers......one day all the gold on the planet will be above ground and in use in phones/computers or on someone’s finger/round their neck and as jewellery will normally stay as jewellery the most sustainable method of getting gold will be what they call “urban mining” from refining e waste and that’s why gold dealers are buying it now and just stacking it up in a vault somewhere as it will only get higher as less becomes available naturally. 

Unless they find another natural source it will definitely go that way......there’s some places that hold 1000s of tonnes but it will be places like the arctic or inaccessible mountain regions etc......pretty crazy to think we have near cleared off one natural resource so much that we will have to destroy even more of the earth just to get more of it!

[Stoney100 1,179]

2 minutes ago, sid g said:

i`ve seen stuff weighed  in that you`d make more on as an item i had some driveway off the scrap man that comes here he was happy to take 15 quid for em they made 165 on ebay ...

 

Yeah that’s the way forward mate......I’ve not done my whole year accounts yet but I know I’ve made at least an extra 3 grand by selling bits on Facebook marketplace......lot of messers on there but it’s free and you reach a lot of people who want something there and then so it shifts quicker for cash to unlike waiting on eBay for an auction, pay pal etc......although that said if I had the room and someone to run eBay for me I would probably use it more to limit the messers lol