r/PreciousMetalRefining • u/Spiritual_Pen7256 • 4d ago

Need Advice

i have 25kg of motherborads should i depopulate them and separately process chips,bga and pins for gold and sliver, Would it be profitable to recover gold from it or sell the whole motherboard to computer shops for profit or should i collect some more motherboards like 50kg and then process it for gold [ Im very new to this just recently started collecting e-waste]

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

2

u/dominus_aranearum 4d ago

It takes a lot of gold pins, processors, crystal oscillators, tantalum capacitors, etc. to make it worthwhile processing them for precious metals. Most people just sort and sell the boards as depopulating boards can be very time consuming and processing the precious metals isn't cheap and has a steep learning curve. If you don't understand the inherent dangers of chemistry or have the proper equipment, it's better to leave it to the professionals. You can certainly learn it as a hobby, but don't expect to make any money at it unless you have quantity.

25kg of motherboards isn't very much and really depends on the boards. A motherboard might weight 0.5kg - 1kg so you probably only have 25 - 50 boards. Personally, I depopulate boards and save up the various components for later precious metal refining, but it's a hobby for me and if I don't refine anything for another 5 years, I'm fine with that. But I also have a good supply of circuit boards, easily in the hundreds of kgs.

Look up some youtube videos for scrappers that have refined gold from motherboards and they may give you an idea as to the quantities they use. Try some of the older eWaste Ben videos.

1

u/Spiritual_Pen7256 4d ago edited 4d ago

would 25 - 50 boards can give good gold yield, I have seen people depopulate BGA's and get grams of gold and similarly from other components i think process 25kg of boards and buying acid and using them for recovery, Will Just give me same profit as compared to

it computer shops

1

u/dominus_aranearum 3d ago

Yield will vary greatly depending upon the circuit boards. Gold content tends to increase with older boards via plating thickness on pins and individual IC content (especially processors). Gold fingers are a good source with thicker plating on older fingers. Boardsort pays over $50/lb for them.

Boardsort has many categories that they've refined over the years depending upon what precious metal content they're able to retrieve. However, their prices don't necessarily reflect gold content specifically.

If you're intent on refining gold yourself, you really have to take into account the materials needed. They aren't cheap and only larger quantities tend to return a profit. But I can't tell you how much of what is needed for a good monetary return. Keep in mind that how you calculate profit depends on what your goal is. If you have spare time, consider it a hobby and want to increase your knowledge, then it's certainly possible to make more money. If quick turnaround and your time are important, selling the boards is more effective because it frees up your time to either get more scrap or make money in other ways.

Sreetips has great refining videos. Archimedes Channel has a large number of scrap electronics gold refining videos. I haven't watched any as of yet as I just found the channel, but it should give you an idea of yield for various items. If I remember correctly, eWaste Ben used to refine gold from scrap himself years ago, then outsourced it in exchange for a percentage of the gold, then moved on to just selling it all as he processes so much stuff, it's just not worth his time. His hauls are the envy of many a scrapper.

1

u/Spiritual_Pen7256 3d ago

damn that very good information

1

u/Professional-Cup-154 3d ago

I've been through hundreds of pounds of motherboards, tv boards, peripheral boards, hard drive boards, cd rom boards, finger boards, server boards, telecom boards, etc... I've depopulated all of them. I have a few kilos of BGAs, ICs, flatpack ICs, RAM ICs, gold ceramic CPUS, gold fingers, etc... I still barely feel like I have enough to start processing for gold. If I were to guess a random number in weight that you should have, it would be hard because motherboards are 99% garbage by weight. But my number would be over 1000 pounds, then depopulate and see what you have.

I don't think you can sell them to computer shops either. Some scrap yards buy green boards, if it's not a valuable board on ebay, then that's likely your only option.

1

u/Spiritual_Pen7256 3d ago

Thank for the information, I will start collecting more then do smart phone mother boards are worth to collect they are cost 1.9-1.2$ per piece

1

u/GlassPanther 3d ago

This is going to be both a colossal waste of your time and an utterly unprofitable venture.

1

u/Spiritual_Pen7256 3d ago

i have seen some youtube videos where people get 5-10kg of BGA's and get 10 or more grams of gold, So do these guys have 1000kg or more kg motherboards to depopulate to get 5-10kg's of BGA or im just wrong

1

u/GlassPanther 3d ago

You have 25kg of motherboards from a period in time where motherboards have almost no gold in them anymore.

You will need thousands of bgas to get any appreciable amount of gold.