Gold from 7900 (1.58kg) LEDs - recovery & refining

Gold recovery and refining from 7,900 (1.58kg) light emitting diodes (LEDs)
These are old Soviet LEDs. For those who think this is a walk in the park... well the reality is different: it took us 2 days just to get the damn things off the boards they were mounted on, burning, boiling for ages (using up a gallon of HNO3), melting the supposedly clean foils into a no good button, which we had to boil in AR for another eternity... and again denoxing, dilution, filtration, precipitation, washing, melting, cleaning... all this for 1g of gold (30% is our cut) NEVER AGAIN! Even if we get them for free...
#gold #goldrecovery #goldrefining #owltech

[@mr.g-sez]

ive been collecting led's mostly from old phones from the 80's and 90's. best thing about them is the golden plate their sitting on and the bondwire inside is the bonus. i collected thousands and thousands of them. and also normal leds and smd led's are good too but you need way more of them. i started collecting glass diodes to. when i have a kilo of them i start processing them too. think i process the led's next week. its so crazy to see the bondwires under a magnifying glass or microscope. i wanna draw them, it looks like an artwork, nobody would know what it is! except us who work with electronics and do recovering of materials

[@djcbanks]

I would have ran the whole batch of LED’s in HCl acid first to remove the tin then rinsed them off before incinerating them. But other than that, nice recovery! I love watching videos of collecting and refining gold from unique sources. I had no idea there was gold in LED’s.

[@OwlTech333]

How are going to remove the tin with HCl when it's alloyed?

[@djcbanks]

@@OwlTech333 is not the tin from the plating and the solder on the leads? That will come off if treated with HCl. I was unaware the leads were actually alloyed with tin. Then again this is the first time I’ve heard gold being in a LED so I could be all kinds of wrong here.

[@OwlTech333]

@@djcbanks yes 99% of the time there's tin in the brass pins too

[@williamfoote2888]

@@OwlTech333 there should be Cu, Zn and Pb in the brass pins. The only Sn will be from the solder. To clean lead off, you could use a dilute flouboric acid. Then use HCl to go for the tin. Tin in ‘brass’ makes it ‘bronze.’ LED also come with notable amounts of In. I’ve never seen that recovered. I’d guess that you’d find it in your silver fraction after collection as AgCl, it’d still be solution.

[@OwlTech333]

@@williamfoote2888 ok bronze pins

[@royalrefining6182]

Nice work as always

[@OwlTech333]

Thanks mate!

[@giorgosxyrichis3630]

Very good result for that kind of material well dan !!

[@OwlTech333]

Thank you!

[@jamisontaylor878]

Excellent video thank you 😊

[@OwlTech333]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@FollowMe2aMillion]

Great video!

[@OwlTech333]

Thank you!

[@tawnihaynie1065]

Very good. Thank you 👍👍

[@OwlTech333]

Thank you too

[@scrapman502]

I always cut off the legs of the led's before I burn them, it eliminates most of the tin solder. I get a lot of LED's from television backlights. There are several on a strip, and tv's have several strips each. Possibly hundreds of LED's per TV. I do have to remove them with a torch on the backside of the strip however, and it takes a little time, but well worth it.

[@OnsloVest]

Nice one! Had no idea what yield to expect

[@OwlTech333]

Me neither, if I knew I wouldn't touch them

[@ScottishGoldHunter]

I didn't even realise there was gold in LED's!!!

[@aredditor4272]

Tiny bond wires

[@ScottishGoldHunter]

@@aredditor4272 I just love gold. When I seen the notification, it got me excited😂

[@prospectorpete]

Yeah there's a nice amount. I've done videos of them on my channel

[@ScottishGoldHunter]

@@prospectorpete Will check out your channel👍🏻

[@prospectorpete]

@@ScottishGoldHunter great. I always try to make viewer requested videos. If there's something you want to see that I haven't done, let me know

[@MiguelSierra]

Excelente.

[@johntherrian5365]

Good shit Owl.

[@user-yd8jk8dc4u]

При таком количестве каждый не проверишь. Если брать в расчёт только металл (без волосков в пластике), то при условии, что все ножки с позолотой, то выход должен быть примерно 3,8 грамм. Плюс то, что в пластике, но пока по пластику информацией не владею. Думаю, что с такого количества диодов до 4 г должно получиться в сумме металл+пластик.

[@elmermitchell8265]

Thanks for sharing your video: 👍

[@OwlTech333]

Thanks for visiting

[@blacklabelonthebedrocks]

Hi OwlTech, You know, I'm following your channel for years and I love the easiness you doing things... There are two things, you should to mention: First: The procedure looks too easy, as a child could recover three grams of gold in one hour. There are a lot of people out there, having access to HNO3 but no clue about chemistry (you know, what I mean - these people occour quite often in the forum or start conversations in the comments). They will hurt themselves and others... Second: This very good yield, only works on older soviet LEDs or from other eastern manufacturers. I've never seen gold plated parts in LEDs from western manufacturers. Please keep on doing your PM recovery, I'm looking forward to your upcoming videos. Thanks! Best regards from Germany!

[@OwlTech333]

Hi! You are correct! These are old Soviet LEDs. I didn't know I was making it look too easy... well the reality is different: it took us 2 days just to get the damn things off the boards they were mounted on, burning, boiling for ages (using up a gallon of HNO3), melting the supposedly clean foils into a no good button, which we had to boil in AR for another eternity... and again denoxing, dilution, filtration, precipitation, washing, melting, cleaning... all this for 1g of gold (30% is our cut) NEVER AGAIN! Even if I get them for free...

[@salihakdag6371]

Eline emeğine sağlık çok yararlı video olmuş teşekkür ederim.

[@OwlTech333]

çok teşekkürler

[@indianjudge3986]

3.1 g gold is way more costly than those LED's i guess 🤔...anyway great 👍 video and very informative 🤗 beyond excellence 👌

[@SURFEAMORETERNO]

If the result of the first merger was only gold, the thing would be good. A hug!

[@OwlTech333]

Well, not good enough but still better!

[@prospectorpete]

Excelent video

[@OwlTech333]

Thank you!

[@prospectorpete]

@@OwlTech333 youre welcome buddy. Nice yield

[@protox07]

I like your videos

[@OwlTech333]

Thank you!

[@bazonis1gp]

super !

[@macfixer01]

Nice video, and thanks for showing what is possible! It appears you got all of your LEDs from the same type display boards shown at the beginning? So that’s also how you knew exactly how many you started with. This is the only video I could find that had a ‘normal’ yield for good quality LEDs which actually have gold bond wires. There are only a couple other videos about processing LEDs. Those people failed to get much gold and now think that LEDs are bad for recovery? It may be partly from their bad technique. Also they all used LEDs collected over time from random boards, and probably a lot of those just didn’t have gold bond wires in them? One of the people only guessed at the starting weight, and there was also a lot of trash mixed in with his LEDs! As you found out though with your BGA video, if the parts you start with had little gold then there isn’t much to recover! I have an auction on eBay for around 27,000 LEDs. That’s over 3X the number that you used. So if processed properly they should yield over 3X as much gold? About 99% of them are brand new HP LEDs that are clear. The gold bond wires are visible inside them. Anyway, I wanted to let you know I’m going to mention your video as a potential for what can be recovered. I’ll make it clear though that you have no part in the auction and are not endorsing it. Thanks again!

[@OwlTech333]

These are old soviet LEDs, the gold comes from the gold plating I didn’t see any bonding wires in them

[@macfixer01]

Except for SMD types, the only time I’ve ever seen anything gold plated on an LED was some big clear ones I had that were about twice as large as usual. I really don’t see gold on the LEDs in your video? Is it only on the leads inside of the plastic? There has to be a bond wire inside each of them though. The silicon die will be attached in a little well on the cathode lead. The surrounding area of silver Acts as a reflector. Then a bond wire connects from the die over to the anode lead, and it can be gold or not.

[@samirfarsane2379]

Hi. Nice video, thank you! What is the name and model of electronic device you used at the end of the video to get the gold purity percentage? Thank you!

[@OwlTech333]

XRF analyzer gun

[@samirfarsane2379]

@@OwlTech333 Thank you! Wow those are great. I just looked them up. Very expensive! 🙂

[@RafalScrapper]

aweszome 👍

[@OwlTech333]

Thank you!

[@adrenalinemedia]

Interesting result. Some steps could be improved, however. A basic rule is to remove all base metals prior to dissolving the material with nitric acid. Tin is a very low-grade base metal. That should not be in the melting dish. Secondly, if you heat a pregnant Aqua Regia solution, which has SMB added to it, this will just cause the opposite of your objective. The metals will redissolve because you add energy! You need to draw energy away from the pregnant solution to precipitate the metals, by either cooling it (even with ice cubes) or diluting it will dest. water. Heating the solution does make no sense to me. It is counterproductive.

[@OwlTech333]

Aqua regia with free nitric removed is no longer AR IMHO. Cold or hot if you haven't removed the oxidizer you won't be able to drop any gold as the precipitate redissolves the moment it forms. About heating after SMB addition there's a whole thread on GRF, I prefer to boil my solutions the reaction is quick and the gold clumps together nicely.

[@mattbeckmann1928]

Hey nice technique and I don't know what this other guy saying I mean it looks like you have it figured out as far as separating the led out that button looked pretty damn clean to me Im willing to bet it's around 98 to 99 pure so yeah nice technique I think I see why you use concentrated nitric too all right man good job I'm going to try that way I didn't know you could get a return off of LEDs I've come across a lot of them before I don't really mess with electronic scrap though anymore cuz it burns me out I'm more into the carrot jewelry that's where you got a better investment

[@bandijanardhan2201]

Good prouses.

[@ivsongold322]

🇧🇷 Good Job 👏🏾👍🏾 ♻️👌🏾

[@OwlTech333]

Thank you!

[@MurrayDagostino]

Working with acid with your bare hands. Okay . Do you use a respirator or do you think that's unnecessary too ?

[@OwlTech333]

not when outside or working under a hood, but that's my personal choice everyone else should use SARs no matter the task.

[@richardoconnor7162]

Why did you melt the foils in to a button? going right to AR as foils would of saved time and supplies.

[@kakarikiIck]

More of these experiments please!

[@OwlTech333]

coming soon

[@SilverScorpion]

Cool

[@roysnider3456]

Is that even enough gold to pay for the chemicals used to recover it?

[@OwlTech333]

Not actually

[@mr.g-sez]

did you recover the gold from the failed attempt from the 10kg gold corner bga's?

[@OwlTech333]

Not yet

[@juretoljan5800]

mate, how much gold can i expect from 100g of gold powder after melting? is it necessary to add sodium carbonate or do i just use borax at the end?

[@OwlTech333]

If pure and dry when you weighted it you should expect exactly 100g gold

[@wiltonjosegoulartgaravelli7925]

Incrível. 👍👍👍👏👏👏😊😊😊❤️❤️❤️

[@user-mr7vb3ey3j]

Dear teacher, I hope your heart is happy and your face is smiling. I was asking you to make a video about the recycling of palladium using the Dimethyglio Oxime method with Farsi subtitles. Thank you.❤❤❤

[@OwlTech333]

Sure I will

[@user-vg7ux7xl2k]

Привет мистер Сова, как всегда на высоте!

[@OwlTech333]

Спасибо!

[@vw8796g35]

Finally someone process a big batch of leds.. thanks !! there is no silver in those?

[@OwlTech333]

I think so

[@ateng_]

Nice ✨✨✨👍

[@OwlTech333]

Thanks!

[@babc97]

Cool...

[@cricketman7335]

Although a good video to cover this material that's hardly been addressed, but most people will acquire their LEDs for processing from mixed sources, which in turn will cause a more widely varied end result than all from the same source. I only have a few points to point out from how I know of things after watching this video... 1... All of those LEDs are all the same from the same type of PCB device from the looks of things. Meaning, they will all have relatively the same amount of potential PM verses 7,900 LED's snipped from various electronic PCBs. That was a good yield number if you ask me, but I just wanted to point that out for others who may not realize and think all through-hole LED's like those will yield that same amount after watching this video. 2... Would've been a bit more helpful to have included your material weight before incineration instead of just piece count. Many, if not most, e-scrapper refiners will want to know weight rather than piece count. 3... Just a personal question on my part but, why did you take the time & costs to melt the foils & bond wires into a button when you knew you was going to dissolve that button in acid? Meaning, why didn't you take the washed recovered material after the incineration and put in acid right away when that needed to be done anyways?

[@aredditor4272]

Always use a loupe to examine for possible gold bond wires.

[@OwlTech333]

1. Yes they are all old Soviet LEDs. 2. I'll weight one diode and will post the result so everyone could work out the total weight. 3. This was supposed to be recovery process only (I'll have a big refining day 200-300g at once) but since I had this alloy I couldn't leave the things like that and I ended up doing the full process. Anyway this bead will go with the lot to be refined.

[@OwlTech333]

0.2g each so that's 1.58kg

[@theshuff]

that's really more than i expected.... how do they make profit as selling those led with 4µg of gold per piece ? As today price, about 50000€/kg. that is a cost of 0.2€ of gold per unit. led is sold on aliexpress 0.77€ for a 100 units bulk. I think that only these old red led maybe contains gold. Modern unit should'nt have any AU involved in process, my guess :D

[@OwlTech333]

I think so too, just like the copper bonding wire replacing the gold bonding wire

[@tinsoffish1810]

That's a lot of led!

[@WaffleStaffel]

Where did the foils come from? I thought there was only a bonding wire.

[@OwlTech333]

god plated LED's anode and cathode posts

[@WaffleStaffel]

@@OwlTech333 Interesting, I've never seen that. Maybe it's mostly on old red LED's? (ahh, they're Soviet)

[@victoryfirst2878]

How much did it cost you to get the gold with the use of acids and gas and stuff ??? Nice video fela too.

[@OwlTech333]

About $25 in total

[@victoryfirst2878]

@@OwlTech333 I tip my hat to you Sir. That is pretty good recovery for sure.

[@janostupnan874]

Здравствуйте, хотелось бы спросить, в реле РЭС - 8 1987 года есть платина или нет?

[@ScrapFatherScrapSon]

What part of the led had gold? The legs?

[@OwlTech333]

Yes gold plating

[@ashwynn4177]

Excellent job. What kind of torch you using?

[@OwlTech333]

Propane

[@ashwynn4177]

@@OwlTech333 With oxygen?

[@OwlTech333]

@@ashwynn4177 yes

[@jonathanward8967]

Seems like a lot of work for such a tiny amount. But hey, a hobby is a hobby!

[@jupiter_ios]

Its worth 160$ tho

[@dave7830]

Seems like an awful lota work for $150 worth of recovered gold. What was the net after paying for chemicals and materials, how much time?

[@OwlTech333]

It is, $25 in chemicals and materials, three days fooling around and $150 was the price of the LEDs

[@ameerabdalrahman2308]

I need your help and advice, can you guide me from where I can buy computer hardware or electronic hardware

[@A1Autocareballinasloe]

Never even knew they used gold in leds

[@joaoqpapelaocoisavelhapidi6175]

Muito legal ❤ não imaginava que no led também tinha Ouro Tenho muitas placas de letreiro de ônibus tem bastante led vou vender por $ 8.50 o kilo

[@keiverdejesusblancorodrigu9265]

Excelente amigo pero tengo una pregunta no seria mejor triturar los led y luego retirar el hierro con un imán y luego mételo en agua regia

[@christopherw9906]

How much did it cost to get about 150 $ worth of gold?

[@OwlTech333]

Arm and a leg

[@shahramarya6417]

Subscribe, thanks for adding persian subtitles

[@jimcaufman2328]

Seems like a lot of work and cost to just get $150 US.

[@OwlTech333]

Not just seems it IS

[@shermdeazy]

Perfect process,if you have access to big amounts of acid.

[@OwlTech333]

Yes

[@TastelessMemes]

What was the purity grade of your nitric acid?

[@OwlTech333]

technical

[@stianthebear]

It's cheaper to just buy the gold, than to go through this process.

[@matthewsaleman58]

Good call Stian. After looking around my local rubbish tip I found that even though I went there looking for electronics to recover a bit of gold, the much faster money was to pick up all the cans, glass and plastic bottles as we get 10 cents AUD refund per item. I did 90 minutes of collecting the bottles and cans into my trailer and made $70 AUD. Now if I want gold then that $70 can buy a gram of alluvial gold out here in the outback desert where we find gold with metal detectors. We can just go find it in the desert in the nugget and specimen form if we search around and know what we are doing

[@55goldrecovery61]

👍👍

[@AirKaya]

Sangat bermanfaat ilmunya

[@OwlTech333]

Thanks

[@user-hq9vq4ju5d]

Is sulfamic itself a urea fertilizer?

[@OwlTech333]

No, it’s different chemical

[@user-fs9wj7ho7e]

شكرا على هذا الشرح هل يمكنك أن توضح لنا عن بوردة التلفزيون ماذا يوجد بها من المعادن الثمينة وشكرا جزيلا لك

[@2hzgh216]

I mistakenly dissolved gold with HCl and sulfuric acid how can I get my gold back?

[@mikebravo3527]

This comment section has more intelligence than most universities...

[@ambalapetlover7904]

I think this led's are from very old electronics 10,15 year old led contain only silver bond wire Sorry for my bad English In india gold scrap rate higher then gold output (yeald) Ram rate is 3800Rs kg

[@KeepItReal33]

I have never heard of gold being used in LEDs…..🤔

[@OwlTech333]

Well now you know

[@vanquynguyen8298]

Sao không điện phân để tách lấy đồng và thiếc ra trước ? Nhưng led ngày nay các chân của nó toàn được làm bằng sắt thôi .

[@Hammerjockeyrepair]

its like the walmart great value sreetips lol

[@OwlTech333]

:)

[@jessewilson8676]

What about the silver (AG) in them?

[@OwlTech333]

It will be recovered as AgCl eventually

[@bnk28zfp]

congradulation u made 170 USD for 3 gram

[@OwlTech333]

Thank you

[@sxfvvgcd4829]

فيديو رائع جدا

[@shaneyork300]

👍

[@migueliniguez9145]

Spent 5 hours and $140 on chemicals to get $140 of gold .

[@OwlTech333]

Spent 10 hours and $25 on chemicals to get $42

[@migueliniguez9145]

@@OwlTech333 but you had fun that’s what counts .

[@mattbeckmann1928]

I've never just used concentrated nitric I've always added a small amount of water to make it more reactive and to actually get all the nitric oxides working power water will make concentrated acids more reactive as long as you don't put too much in there

[@Mpayne1472]

Approximately £141 of gold

[@loveisalliam]

These must be from the very early production of 1st generation leds. You wont get gold from modern leds.or most chips nowadays .

[@OwlTech333]

Yes these are old Soviet LEDs

[@zafarazmi7599]

❤️❤️❤️💐💐💐👍

[@user-qh1vg5hv9z]

Пепель тоже содержит золотые волоски. ..

[@solharvester2341]

I had no idea LEDs had gold foil.

[@OwlTech333]

gold foils are left after dissolving the base metal underneath

[@Hammerjockeyrepair]

$150usd worth of gold, $50 in supplies and an entire day gone lol

[@OwlTech333]

yes, not worth it

[@dean4069]

I was very interested and impressed. Only a Westerner would worry about a wasted day....

[@jessewilson8676]

Don’t forget the income from the current 100K KZbin views

[@user-fs9wj7ho7e]

ماهي القطع المهمه في التليفزيون وشكرا جزيلا

[@bobs-rocks]

3 grams of contaminated gold alloy maybe

[@OwlTech333]

@13:41 3.13g Au 99.34% pure or that's about 3.1g PURE gold

[@michaelkoonce3909]

Lot of led,s

[@roberthudacek]

price of energy, price of chemicals, price of time? 3 grams of gold = $90, because it is not pure gold.....

[@user-ed5wv7fb3y]

Лайк вам ✌️👍👍

[@OwlTech333]

Спасибо!

[@user-fs9wj7ho7e]

كيف حالك يا بومة

[@user-fs9wj7ho7e]

اين أنت يا بومه

[@stevenjordan6389]

what is SMB

[@OwlTech333]

Sodium metabisulphite

[@nikolayegorin6817]

Почему никто не заморачивается сбором диоксида азота? Собрать устройство которое будет протягивать его через дисцилированую воду и будет опять азотка и экологии меньше вреда.

[@OwlTech333]

еще лучше, если вы добавите перекись водорода вместе с азотной кислотой, все оксиды азота превращаются обратно в азотную кислоту на месте

[@angti2580]

LED에도 금이있네요 ~~~~

[@user-rq3ue6iv9f]

надо указывать что светики АЛ307 из СССР - в импорте хер а не золото

[@OwlTech333]

В описании писал что Советские

[@henrykmielczarek3189]

prawda , diody import to musor .

[@user-fs9wj7ho7e]

هل يوجد طريقة بدون الأحماض وشكرا جزيلا لك

[@timothyedge4261]

7900 L.E.D @ 20 cents each = $1580;..;.. gold recovered $171 .. well done 😂😂😂

[@OwlTech333]

Thank you!

[@user-cb1rw2od7v]

Лайк вам

[@OwlTech333]

Спасибо!

[@battleshippotemkin560]

Из светофоров?))

[@OwlTech333]

Не знаю

[@vernsrocksstuff5989]

To much work for so little gold

[@OwlTech333]

Agree

[@quintonharvey1501]

I thought led just had silver

[@OwlTech333]

These ones have gold too

[@frantiseklaluch6605]

Oh, you have 3 hands... 🤨

[@OwlTech333]

zaphod beeblebrox is my other name :)

[@frantiseklaluch6605]

@@OwlTech333 42 😀

[@donwright3427]

Cuddles CCM hi jack fresh in NC chuck look goldings