Computer Scrap GOLD Recovery In Aqua Regia

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@youssefzouine8191 3 ай бұрын

To lose some gold to teach people some mistakes, this is considered a noble act on your part. That's why I love you, love your work, and enjoy watching your work

@TerribleShmeltingAccident 3 ай бұрын

i agree but would add that whatever his motives are is a mute point in my eyes. he's so patient with us green-peas in the comment section while being so attentive/thorough in the information he disseminates. Watching this channel regularly is akin to apprenticing at a jewelry repair shop or a gold mine or something (ie INVALUABLE.) Ty Sreetips

@fredrichardson9761 3 ай бұрын

I've watched your videos long enough to know that you always want to get those base metals out first and the way to do that (as you've demonstrated many times) is through nitric boils since gold doesn't easily dissolve in nitric acid alone. This was a really nice demonstration of why you do it that way - it looked really difficult to do and not very rewarding in the end - hats off to you for taking the time and effort to show this!

@dunravin 3 ай бұрын

Conclusive result Sreetips, thanks for putting the work in just to make the point.

@newtronix 3 ай бұрын

I do like that you show the bad ways to do the recovery. It really extends the knowledge base.

@wolfgangricky 3 ай бұрын

First off i am man enough to say when i am wrong Professor . As it went along , i was like so what it is dirty. Quicker & less waste & then you got the yield & woops. Ty for taking us along

@anubis01234 3 ай бұрын

it was good to see the comparison bewteen the 2 videos/methods very interesting , cheers 😊

@charleswise5570 3 ай бұрын

It was definitely interesting to watch, and see what happens when you skip the step in the refining of gold. Thanks for sharing this with us. Much appreciated Sreetips!

@AndyGraceMedia 3 ай бұрын

Still very nice Chief. To the peeps wondering, etched copper tracks on PCBs will oxidise and disappear quickly if they're not protected and the best way through a process called ENIG. That stands for electroless nickel immersion gold. There's a nickel layer between the gold and copper so the gold doesn't diffuse into the copper track underneath. First the board is immersed in the liquid nickel ion solution, rinsed and followed by the gold layer which makes its stick to the nickel. That's another reason why sreetips first method of removing the copper and nickel first is the best way to go. Too many possible reactions happening with the second method including production of nickel chloride which can be carcinogenic if inhaled.

@taxesdeathandtrouble.1886 3 ай бұрын

Thanks, good stuff.

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

Thanks Andy

@StefanShorko 3 ай бұрын

I learned something new today. You're a smart person Andy.

@anthonyrstrawbridge 3 ай бұрын

You make this theory sound sound to ears 🌽 😮 However, it don't hold water. Think people!

@empirefinds 3 ай бұрын

I found an interesting way of releasing the foils hydrochloric acid 99% hydrogen peroxide 1% leave for 100 hours no heat. Foils release and every metal below hydrogen on the reaction table dissolves into the solution. Leaving you copper and every metal above. Making stage 2 less complicated. And stage 3 higher yeilds. There are so many methods out there awesome episode brother I definitely will never use that method.

@TrumpedUp888 3 ай бұрын

Very interesting how the 2 methods vary in yield. I can see how the gold can get lost easily. This method is like driving in a blizzard. You can't see where you're headed with all the metals dissolved together in solution. Even losing a couple of grams of gold in the process is costly in the end. Thank you for showing this method. More kilos to go.👍

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

Good analogy

@SpartanONegative 3 ай бұрын

Solution held on to almost half the gold. . Just like it held on to the color green. The process worked but isn't efficient. Thank you for the excellent chemistry demonstration Sreetips 🐉🇺🇸🦅 Hope you have a great Fourth of July 🙏 God Bless

@RobertAndrews-i9o 3 ай бұрын

I think rhis experiment just allowed you to see how mycy nitric you need to do the job with a kilo of cards and a liter of hydrochloric.

@TxStang 3 ай бұрын

great video , lesson learned . Losing half the yield could really sting when doing this method a number of times .

@GigTuber 3 ай бұрын

Thanks for the demonstration Sreetips.

@DanBowkley 3 ай бұрын

I agree with Andy, you're probably having fun with nickel during the refining process. The good news is that both ENIG (electroless nickel under immersion gold) and ENEPIG (electroless nickel, electroless palladium, immersion gold) are pretty common so you might be getting a little palladium bonus to help offset the nickel frustration.

@CraigMacdonaldAeon 3 ай бұрын

I was a little surprised you didn't use ferrous sulphate for precipitation of such a dirty extraction. Do you think using FeSO4 would be more selective in dropping out just gold and leaving base metals and nickel in solution?

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

According to the book, “Ferrous Sulfate will drop the gold, all the gold, and nothing but the gold.”

@Brandon_SoMD 3 ай бұрын

What this video teaches someone inexperienced (like me): the "gotcha" of this method is the idea that "aqua regia dissolves gold" - but without knowing that it really should instead be "aqua regia ALSO dissolves gold." It doesn't JUST dissolve gold. Gold is kind of the LAST thing it dissolves, apparently.

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

Correct

@fieldie 3 ай бұрын

Its crazy, you'd really think this would work well, but it really doesn't, this was WAYYY less efficient😮, thanks for showing us!

@dn2817 3 ай бұрын

Oh nooo! “Big mistake” I’m watching now

@justintran7740 3 ай бұрын

I love chemistry and this stuff fascinates me, but I'm a bit too clumsy and so I stay well enough away from these things, but I enjoy watching and learning. Thanks as always Sreetips!

@MarkDonerSD 3 ай бұрын

This video reminds me of something that happened to a friend of mine, an older fellow named Tom I knew about 15 years ago... Back in the 80s he acquired some gold plated circuit boards, and decided to get the gold off of them. Unlike you, he wasn't the type to do small scale tests, though. He did some library research, bought supplies, hired a friend, and they took some barrels of circuit boards out to the desert, BLM land near Ocotillo Wells, and set up in a disused gravel mine. I guess he and his friend just dumped jugs of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid in there... When it fumed up massively, he just said to his friend, "let's go into town and get some coffee." And they took off. Someone saw or smelled the fume cloud, and the police were called. They tried to charge him with an environmental crime but it didn't stick, the text of the crime mentioned specified it applied to "the waters of the state" and there's really no water out in that area. The only charge that stuck was a type of littering. The judge was sympathetic to his "minerals recovery operation gone wrong".

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

That’s an interesting story. Thanks for sharing.

@jamesprice3403 3 ай бұрын

Hey sreetips would the cheapest way to get rid of the base metals not be peracitic acid by useing vinegar and with an addition funnel full of hydrogen peroxide I tested this mix on a half silver half copper ring and it fully dissolved in less than 24 hrs and those base metals there are super thin shouldn’t take more than a few hrs with a dollar or 2 worth of chemicals would like to see it tried by a professional like yourself

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

I prefer hot dilute nitric.

@andrewlovesu1 3 ай бұрын

From memory a slow leach with hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide is the best way to get rid of base metals from circuit fingers

@andrewlovesu1 3 ай бұрын

@sreetips I agree, nitric is the simplest and fastest way. Hydrochloric, hydrogen peroxide leach is slower & cheaper but still not as simple

@jamesprice3403 3 ай бұрын

Ya the nitric is clean I was thinking supply cost but with the price of gold now I guess production beats cost there is enough profit margin to do it the nitric route in other words I remember recycling computers back when gold was a lot lower and everything u could do to maximize profit u did never did any refining myself tho just the people we worked with did anyway awsome videos really enjoyed the platinum series recently!

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

Hot nitric is much faster

@robertmitchell7792 3 ай бұрын

I love these experiments. High school science could have been more interesting if you were teaching. Thanks

@spencermaiers8322 3 ай бұрын

Go to school so in part you're prepared to go make money in the "real world", but I'd guess you're presented with a bunch of less useful real world experiments that are more of a novelty etc and lots of memorization. Apprenticeship at least lets the kid put a meager roof over his head as crooked the whole money system is etc. But 300k loans for a possibly worthless degree and you know squat after you get out except how to really order a double caramel frappe latte cappucio. Sreetips incorporates the thing probably missing in school. A real practical way to help keep something going your way with some effort and knowledge/skill on your end. Rote learning in school to get a grade probably doesn't stick around. In short you could probably learn more off KZbin for all its censorship and flaws than spending top dollar at a university because it's considered appropriate.

@nopenothappening2923 3 ай бұрын

Or if the subject matter was gold lol

@goranaxelsson1409 3 ай бұрын

Interesting to see how big difference there were between the two methods. The question is where the gold went. The liquids looked barren so I don't think it went to the stock pot. That leaves the circuit boards. One thing I've seen is that gold could cement out on the inside of multi-layer boards and when it does it's hard to get it again. I would run a sample of these leached fingers in aqua regia and test with stannous to see if there is some gold left in it. There are many videos of people running all different kind of scrap straight into aqua regia and doesn't seem to have any problem. The difference between you and them is that you are careful with your nitric usage while the usual way is to run with a 3:1 or 4:1 mixture from the start. With such a high nitric concentration I think it inhibits any gold cementing. Whenever I run any unknown material I usually do a second digestion if I suspect that I could have missed something.

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

I did a recovery video on the waste solutions. There’s still gold in those waste solutions. I think one viewer nailed it: when there’s gold, copper, nickel, and iron in solution all at once, the base metal ions interfere with the gold precipitation. It’s slow and cumbersome compared to precipitation with just gold in solution by itself. Which underscores why it’s a bad idea to use Aqua Regia before all the base metals are removed.

@james.j1066 3 ай бұрын

Very nice. As always awesome content. Your channel is a dependable entertaining experience 😊😊😊

@Ellis157 3 ай бұрын

wow scared me for a second when you were filtering the solution for the first time. when the funnel moved my heart dropped lol

@StefanShorko 3 ай бұрын

Don't worry chief, reetips is a pro.

@Ellis157 3 ай бұрын

@@StefanShorko oh I know ben watching him for quite a while, but it still startled me lol

@Steelythestacker 3 ай бұрын

I learned a bit from the video and from the communities comments. A good day.

@scrapman502 3 ай бұрын

What do think will happen to the gold when all the surface base metals are dissolved, and there is still sub-surface copper traces present in the circuit boards?. Don't forget that most trimmed fingers come from multilayer circuit boards. you can really see the copper once the outer layer of copper is gone and you can then see wavy lines of copper underneath the fiberglass.

@TroubledOnePaydirt 3 ай бұрын

I know it shouldn’t, but it bothers me that you didn’t just take one or two out and make it 1000 grams even. Lol… 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤪🤪🤪

@meettheworld6241 2 ай бұрын

Would be interesting to see the dry weight of the fiber boards after having the metal removed to determine the total weight of metal removed from the boards...

@davidrush4908 3 ай бұрын

Not sure how this would work, but some of the resins used in the underlying circuit board are dissolvable in sodium hydroxide. It might be interesting to see if you can separate the foils first that way.

@ciorchinos 3 ай бұрын

you can try to refine the gold from the solution using electrolysis and 2 graphane rods (from an old battery for instance). it will be more cost-effective and you do not need to reans all that dirty solution. you can refine the deposited metal afterward. the downside is that a lot of nasty gases will be released during the process and you need to do it under the fume hood.

@raytruesdell7873 3 ай бұрын

Always fun to watch you do this be safe everyone 👍🇺🇸 and happy 4Th of July 🎆

@silentferret1049 3 ай бұрын

I wonder if it will come down to a stronger acid to dissolve the base metals quicker vs less removal and rinsing steps. I think that would be the only advantage if there is one. After the base metals are dissolved then it would be dissolving the gold after so all the waste scrap can be removed out. I see this being more for a fully fleshed out refining process for doing a lot of these fingers in mass if not general computer boards to also recover copper and other metals for processing. For a process like this size, its more of a hassle to deal with since you are going for the gold only. For a larger operation removing the boards would be more optimal as then they just have to pump out the liquids and then separate out after.

@200932me 3 ай бұрын

I'm curious of the costs, equipment and supplies, involved in processing precious metals. Have you done a video addressing costs? An overview of all of the equipment/supplies would be great too.

@FiveStringCommando 3 ай бұрын

As long as I’ve been a subscriber, the stannous test sounds like something a doctor would do with a gloved hand. “Okay, cough for me” 😂 I always enjoy your videos. It makes me want to learn how to *safely* refine metals.

@indignant_gimp 3 ай бұрын

I'd like to see an xrf of that button. I've done some experiments myself trying to recover the copper after Ag cementation. Adding SMB to barren blue nitrate solution drops copper as a flour like red powder. Ultra fine red powder. So there has to be some copper in that button being it was never removed. This leads me to also believe that not only is there copper in there, but who know what else came out with the Au and Cu. I could see the copper not melting as quickly as the gold and remaining in the melt dish residues as well, also with some Au clinging to it. Very surprised to see Less total metal in the end result than expected. I actually expected More total weight than less because of this. Probably locked up in complexes 'somewhere' with the missing Au as he said.

@MrPetrion 3 ай бұрын

where would science be without casserole dishes?

@hiddentruth1982 3 ай бұрын

A very informative video. Not to mention it was interesting too.

@TheWeehorror 3 ай бұрын

Great vid as usual Mr. Driver. This what makes me laugh about the “bucket” vids out there. They must lose so much metal because they don’t separate the foils first. Electronics are filthy anyway and this is proven by Streetips’ first filtered solution.

@thespicemelange.1 3 ай бұрын

Almost twice as much work for half the yield, sounds like my job.

@victorlowe 3 ай бұрын

When i watched yesterday, literally this same question went through my mind, and here you are today answering it! Amazing, thank you!

@tbreitkopf 3 ай бұрын

I love the SMB Jar. I think its better then the stump out container.

@robertclark2959 3 ай бұрын

This is the first time I've noticed orange fumes in the concentrated nitric bottle

@ryansullivan3438 3 ай бұрын

Learning is part of the process. Thank you for sharing your experiences, sir.

@jamisondonald384 3 ай бұрын

Oy vey. Thank you for doing this and showing what happens

@scrapman502 3 ай бұрын

I have a dedicated acid I use just for removing Gold fingers from edge connectors. It's a Mixture of Hydrochloric acid, 3% hydrogen Peroxide and Dissolved copper. Basically it's used AP. After I use the fresh acid and peroxide mixture, I don't throw it out. I re-use it over and over. When the solution gets a little thick (1-2 uses) I just add a little more acid. When this solution is heated, I can strip a batch of fingers of it's gold in less than 12 hours.. It seems the more copper that is dissolved in solution, the stronger it gets. I don't dispose of the mixture until about 10 uses. It just gets too saturated to filter.

@yahshuasaves7478 3 ай бұрын

Your videos are always Great!! Thanks for the info.... can you also use baking soda to neutralize the nitric acid?

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

No, it doesn’t have the punch.

@azafreak 3 ай бұрын

And now we know 😂

@bluecat2991 3 ай бұрын

You are one hell of an educator, dude. Well put.

@kiarawhalen1544 3 ай бұрын

This is awesome. I appreciate that you do these videos, purposefully making a mess of it. Its a great lesson for those who are getting into the trade

@deanfranklin6870 3 ай бұрын

Talk about going around the block to get next door, that definitely qualifies as a horror story. Kudos and thanks for showing it

@josephcormier5974 3 ай бұрын

Awesome video. Would the iron sulfate be better in this situation than SMB? Thank you for sharing this knowledge with us six stars sir

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

Probably

@radiocomponent 3 ай бұрын

Отличная работа.

@musamusin2525 3 ай бұрын

Residual nitric acid can be nuetralized with carbamide - cost effective method.

@MrZodiacify 3 ай бұрын

🤔 Technically wouldn't this method be like you melting the stirling silver and the gold into shot?

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

@timothypirnat3754 3 ай бұрын

Good illustration and good content Chief. Hope you have an enjoyable 4th. Thank you for protecting our Nation.

@timsmith9645 3 ай бұрын

Awesome video nice gold button thanks for sharing sreetips

@Smokkedandslammed 3 ай бұрын

Can you do a video of the different colors aqua regia makes with various metals? I thought the yellow it makes with gold was beautiful but that green/emerald color was just as wild! Thanks for the videos!

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

Gold is yellow. Copper is blue. Yellow and blue make green.

@michaelbrown023 3 ай бұрын

My first thought when the gold solution turned black it was the coffee filter dissolving.

@BenjaminSteber 3 ай бұрын

Thomas Edison might say "I've discovered a new way to not make a light bulb!"

@youssefzouine8191 3 ай бұрын

You The Best ❤

@ArielleViking 3 ай бұрын

A great way to show that shortcuts can lose gold. 👍🏻

@stevebuczek 3 ай бұрын

No lesson better taught than the results of doing it WRONG. Professor Sreetips 👨‍🔬

@jamisontaylor878 3 ай бұрын

Excellent video thank you 😊 if you know you know about this!!!

@seanmiller678 3 ай бұрын

Silver chloride is hard 2 deal with... also theres a LOT of tin... makes for hard times when u go out of process...

@Pablo668 3 ай бұрын

I thought about you doing it this was when I watched your last vid on these things. I figured it would just take everything and then you'd have to refine it some more. I didn't think it would be the massive pita as you showed us here.

@StefanShorko 3 ай бұрын

Good work team. I watched Philip benders video as per your recommendation and completely forgot I had watched it once before. Unfortunately though, we don't have that same brand of stump out as he recommended, and sulfuric acid isn't free to purchase. You need special permission because people think you would use it as poison. So, basically, shit out of luck. I wanted to use nitric to get gold but ok.

@Ducott 3 ай бұрын

There is a good chance that the lost gold, after having gone into solution, got soaked into the fibre board. I not 100% what that board is name from, could it be incinerated in your furnace and recovered?!? Ground into a powder then reprocessed in AR?!?

@eprams 3 ай бұрын

You should change the name of your channel to "...gonna get a quick stannous test."

@skinnywheelz 3 ай бұрын

🤣😂

@averygentry35 3 ай бұрын

Can you say, what the cost of the fingers, and maybe the cost of materials and times versus the yield when your done! Thansk love the show!

@dbaca148 3 ай бұрын

hi sreetips. thank you for doing that experiment. good to know.

@ericswain4177 3 ай бұрын

As always, is the time chemicals cost overhead worth the effort in the end. More profit in the video etc...I think.

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

Converting currency to GOLD is a profit.

@walkthroughguru 3 ай бұрын

Gold will be bound inside the fibre of the boards only way to get it out is to slow leach them with sodium nitrate and hcl

@jalalhamdan1415 3 ай бұрын

Amazing steps hopfuly we will see more vidoes thanks away

@redbaronrefining5322 3 ай бұрын

Another tip: Second option besides the first one I’d mentioned is to put into AR multiple times, rinsing and filtering after each step. Stannous test after each one, but you know due to the reactivity of metals, that the base metals will tend to go in first prior to the gold, so by the 2nd or 3rd AR step, it’s much easier to work with and drop the gold.

@Vibe77Guy 3 ай бұрын

The scientific thing to do now is to figure out where the retained gold actually is, and why. I don't see how gold stannate could be in play here. Possibly absorption into the circuit board materials?

@ExtractingMetals 3 ай бұрын

Next show folks the very slow but super efficient method of soaking them for a week in a bucket with AP solution to remove the base metals 😉

@hansweichselbaum2534 Ай бұрын

Thanks for showing us "the wrong way"! Easier to remember than just hearing or reading about it.

@benbrown7072 3 ай бұрын

Would it make sense to incinerate the fingers before applying the nitric acid base metal removal process?

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

No, the fiber board doesn’t burn to ash very well.

@CothranMike 3 ай бұрын

@@sreetips correct, if it were needed it is best to dissolve the fiberglass and resin after you free the gold foils, for what it is worth. The small voids in the fiber boards can be rinsed well enough so there is not a loss there, the base metals hold the gold captive. Remove them to free the gold.

@benbrown7072 3 ай бұрын

@@sreetips thanks! What does the fiber board consist of exactly? Love your channel BTW 👍

@fieldie 3 ай бұрын

Do you think you will try to recover that lost gram and a bit of gold out of that mucky solution? I'd think it's probably not worth it now, with the cost of materials, acids and your time etc for that little amount lost, i mean it could be for the ad revenue by doing a video on it maybe? Whats your thoughts? I was thinking... you could try evaporating all the dirty liquids to get a solid mass, then see if its possible to remove the base metals using nitric acid and see if you can get the gold that way?

@taxesdeathandtrouble.1886 3 ай бұрын

Boiling point of aqua Regia. 108 °C (226 °F; 381 K)

@dave1219 3 ай бұрын

Are the PC boards porous? If so I bet your lost gold is soaked into the scrap. Maybe burn it and see if you can release that extra gram.

@Lady.Jade.of.the.Storms 3 ай бұрын

28:31 it looks like the solution is polluted with pgm or copper chloride (?)

@amikelallan0 3 ай бұрын

So sick of people with hair braided ideas you do it wrong on purpose just to show them. Love it.

@chrisharris1522 3 ай бұрын

If you had produced this mixture in a zero atmosphere environment then leave it for long enough exposed to sunlight, I believe you would create inorganic life!

@andrewrossi7164 3 ай бұрын

Thanks for showing us each method you use sreetips 👍

@johnheckles8239 3 ай бұрын

Watched loads of your vids and do t think Iv ever heard you say it.. What are the orange/brown fumes that come off the solution?

@gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730 3 ай бұрын

the fumes are nitrous oxide iirc, a toxic gas, which is why a fume hood is mandatory

@CothranMike 3 ай бұрын

@@gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730 nitrous dioxide the beginnings of nitric acid when you add water, like the moisture in your lungs. Your saliva will create nitric acid with the fumes, your tears - the same. It is not a nice thing.

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

The fumes from the nitric acid reactions are nitrogen dioxide. The fumes from Aqua Regia are a little different but just as harmful as the NO2

@michal.dragon 3 ай бұрын

15:40 the color of the solution is as if you were pouring liquid emeralds

@CSMMaster 3 ай бұрын

I wonder if putting the nitric acid into a drip setup would avoid some of the “babysitting” you need to do? It may require a longer evaporation period, but at least you could possibly make better use of time. Just a thought. This was a captivating experiment, for sure 👍🏻

@sreetips 3 ай бұрын

Yes, a nitric drip would help