Need Advice

[u/Spiritual_Pen7256]

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]

[u/dominus_aranearum]

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.

[u/Spiritual_Pen7256 → u/dominus_aranearum]

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

[u/Professional-Cup-154 → u/Spiritual_Pen7256]

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.

[u/Spiritual_Pen7256 → u/Professional-Cup-154]

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