Gold Recovery From Ceramic IC Chips

Here I show how to get gold out of scrap ceramic IC chips, including EPROMS, ROMS and misc. ceramic logic chips. The process involves crushing the chips into small pieces, then doing multiple extraction operations to remove base metals. Then finally extracting the gold. Please visit mdpub.com/Urban... for more information.
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Chemicals used in these videos:
Nitric Acid: xelexo.net/ind...
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Hi-Yield Iron Sulfate (4 lbs.) amzn.to/3p788RA
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[@goranaxelsson1409]

The white fluffy stuff that looks like silver chloride is probably remnants from the glass frit. It dissolves in diluted nitric acid but I haven't tested with HCl yet. My preferred way to refine ceramic DIL chips is to turn the larger ones on end with a slight angle and give it a tap from a hammer. Usually split off the lid clean from the bottom. If the bond wires are aluminium I rip off the legs and throw it in my steel scrap. Smaller chips is easy to split with some pliers at the frit. One or two cut removes the lid. A quick wash in nitric acid removes any frit left and silver solder. Then aqua regia until the dies falls off. After that it's just standard refining. No lids and dies falls off when it is ready makes it easy to refine and visually see when the process is done. Easy material to refine.

[@macfixer01]

You really did it the hard way. There was no need to dissolve the steel, or to have so much filter-clogging powder. It’s easy to just stand a CERDIP chip on end and tap the seam on the opposite end with either a screwdriver or chisel and a hammer. They split in half and you can peel the legs off along with the loose glass frit. Then you have just the bottom ceramic wafer in one piece with the gold braze and silicon die in the middle of it. Although I suppose you could break the wafer in half at the center just to give the acid better access to the braze underneath the silicon die. I’ve literally broken open thousands of these sandwich design (CERDIP) chips and they have never had any gold bond wires inside them. You’ll only find gold bond wires in (some of) the side-brazed type ceramic EPROM’s. I’m surprised you didn’t find any silver though. 999 Dusan did a really good video a couple years ago and he found evidence of gold, palladium, and silver in the EPROMs that have a silver-colored interior. You didn’t say though, maybe you only used EPROMs that had visible gold inside? Also I think you’ve even mentioned this before yourself, but you don’t have to add more sulfuric acid to remove lead. In the process of de-noxing the sulfamic acid is converted to sulfuric acid.

[@FollowMe2aMillion]

I use channel locks to remove tops but it is a long process. Another great video sir.

[@afineliner740]

I think that was probably a reasonable amount of gold from such a small amount of ICs, and given the nature of the ICs thick ceramic construction and weight. 👍

[@adelinyoungmark1929]

I found a good way to crush material that tends to fracture rather than bend is to take an old propane bottle and cut the top off with an angle grinder and use it as a sort of mortar and use an axel or metal rod (probably with the end rounded out like a ball peen hammer) and use it to smash and mash. ive been able to crush rocks and bricks and all sorts of stuff with it.

[@PCMcGee1]

Thanks for the very interesting video, and the explanations. I always enjoy seeing this process and how it is handled.

[@vw8796g35]

I suspect the initial more vigourus reaction was due to the aluminium bond wires . Aluminium react a lot with hcl

[@scrapman502]

You say you're Lazy, but to reduce the amount of acid you use to dissolve the steel, you can try breaking off the legs from the IC's before you crush them. It would reduce the amount of acid you use by at least 30%.😀

[@omegageek64]

True, but I used maybe $1 of acid. I'll let chemistry do the heavy lifting at that price.

[@kenb8773]

Great videos, a little tip, a Muriatic acid boil on the powdered gold would clean it up nicely, I have seen other refiners do this and it works wonders.

[@user-yx9jm9sp2y]

Enjoy your video .... I've seen some others use a hammer mill to pulverize chips.

[@ssofmas8473]

Make videos about Rhodium recovery especially catalysts converts. There is so less videos about it. People just could recover Pt and Pd and no chance for Rh!!! You can do it😉👍

[@nato7.62mm4]

I used a crock-pot to heat sodium hydroxide to remove the green mask from some circuit boards, the crock-pot is ceramic, I noticed that the hot lye caused the ceramic to quickly disintegrate and fall apart, the lye did not seem to effect the gold layer on the circuit board... L8R G8R

[@JamesSkellington-xj8nn]

Nice drop for the small amount of IC Chips you done . I commend you sir you never seem to disappoint your KZbin members .

[@ManMountainMetals]

I just pile all my chips up together and wait for a baby Skynet to form.

[@ryanh3176]

See I buried mine. And grew a T-1000, right by the tomatoes. Mean little bastard.

[@frantiseklaluch6605]

Hello Mike, I was expecting more gold, from old ceramic chips to be honest. Under 0,5 g from 1 kg... But if the acid does the hard work, no complain there. I spend 2 days shoveling gravel into highbanker to get 0,5 g of placer gold...

[@omegageek64]

A lot of the chips weren't that old. Yeah, older chips are better.

[@shaneyork300]

Does the ball mill not work for the ceramic ic chips?

[@omegageek64]

I didn't try it. I worry that the hard ceramic shards would destroy the plastic tub. I have another video coming out in the future where I tried ball milling hard sharp stuff in a plastic rock tumbler tub and it really didn't work well.

[@travismiller5548]

@@omegageek64 the channel Succesful Engineer has videos on his ball mill made from a propane tank and an old treadmill... check out the channel if you haven't already.

[@keithyinger3326]

@@travismiller5548 I made a rock tumbler/roller out of an old treadmill and the two end rollers from it. It runs on 16-20 volts I think is the tap ive got it on for a nice slow rolling speed. I can fit 3 rubber barrels on it. I did put a guide wheel 2/3 of the way in between the rollers. I have 2 same size barrels that can roll end to end, and a third bigger one that can roll against the 2/3 guide wheel. You could easily make one to roll a propane tank with just the motor and 2 end rollers from a junk treadmill. You don't even need the control board. Just a DC power supply, or an AC transformer and a "Full Bridge Rectifier!" Lol sorry.. Couldn't resist the electroboom, but that's what I have running my rock roller. An old a.c. power transformer and a rectifier. I dont even remember the voltage anymore its been hooked up for so many years now, but its pretty low.

[@travismiller5548]

@@keithyinger3326 hey that's a great idea to put multiple barrels on it, rather than cut down and rebolt or weld the super long frame to a shorter one.

[@Chewy_GarageBandDad]

Laziness breeds ingenuity.

[@markflores9055]

Thank you

[@jaystevens3548]

Try using Distilled water and not Purified water. Purified water has added chemicals.

[@Alrik.]

A very nice video as always. I would've thought there'd be some copper at least, so I was surprised to see it was pretty much tinned iron and gold only. Was there a tinge of colour to the second stannous chloride test? People like E-waste Ben often say the non gold Eeproms might contain silver or pgms, and the second might ne the case, seeing that you also didn't get any silver.. 🤔

[@omegageek64]

No real color. It tends to go brown after a couple of minutes due to the SO2 in the liquid. I think makes tin sulfide.

[@shaneyork300]

Been waiting for your ceramic ic chip gold extraction!! Great Video!! Thank You!!!

[@user-dn8sg1js5l]

سلام استاد بزرگ‌لطف میکنید استاندارد ترین درصد اسیدهای کلریدریک ونیتریک قبل از اکوئولوژیا وخوده اکوئولوژیا رابفرمائید وایا برای همه قطعات کاربردش موفقیت امیز است بسیار متشکر میشم اگر فارسی برام ارسال کنی چون من انگلیسی بلد نیستم متشکرم استاد

[@aliz3654]

استاد بزرگ کجا بود یک کیلو چیپ میزاه توکاسه نیم گرم طلا در نمیاره پالادیوم که یخته نقره یخته یکم پلاتین یخته همه ویدیوهاش همینطوره

[@johannesdesloper8434]

I'm still wondering if those white ceramics are BeryliumOxide,

[@jansonsynder]

Just curious. What do you do with the drip you tested with stannous chloride?

[@omegageek64]

It usually goes in my stock pot. Else I'll wipe it up with a rag and put the rag with my used filters for eventual processing.

[@jesscorbin5981]

Heat then vinegar technique, perhaps?

[@riyazuddinx2674]

Warigud

[@prospectorpete]

What do you mean you can't just incinerate them and get the gold ?. I do it all the time. It's the exact same process as plastic. You just gotta make sure they're incinerated till they go white. Once crushed it's the same gravity separation process etc

[@josephhaley1443]

I get mine hot and take the top and bottom apart

[@rockman531]

Hi Mike, Another great video! Could the steel legs be dissolved in HCL with a bubbler just like the plastic chips before crushing?? I have 12 pounds of ceramic EPROMS & ROMS to process - I better get busy!! Maybe I'll separate all the visible gold EPROMS & run them by themselves?? Thank You so very much for educating us!! Take Care, Jim

[@JustMe-qt8kz]

Too much talk