Computer Scrap EASY REFINE TO PURE GOLD

[@2212db]

We've seen the beautiful blue solution from the silver cell. We love the gorgeous orange of aqua regia. Now we have an amazing green solution. I love these colours!

[@kwfilip1]

I’ve watched you dissolve gold many times. Done it a few myself. Never seen it melt in vapor! Very cool Sreetips. 10:27

[@dawnjennings4864]

This process went much smoother than the last time. It had a lot less waste to dispose of. Thanks for the knowledge! As you know I'm not a refiner or even own gold in any way. I'm just a Nerd... also I know way too much about... just stuff. Lol😂 it's so interesting.

[@sreetips]

We love having you along, Dawn.

[@OwlTech333]

One of the best materials for a beginner, IMHO. My first pure gold came out of similar fingers. Great video!

[@theaussienurseflipper.8113]

I seen video and guy just ran soldering iron across the boards and foils just popped off, cheers Graham.

[@gorillapermacuture]

Thanks brother! I really appreciate your knowledge. The art of alchemy is noble and your salvage recycling of precious metals is inspiring, even though I don't have the space or time for a lab. keep on keepen on! Aloha!

[@apveening]

As noted, a lot quicker and easier than with peroxide. Keep up the good work.

[@apveening]

@@stefanbrosilch6313 Time is money.

[@apveening]

@@stefanbrosilch6313 Running the pump for the bubbler takes money as well.

[@sreetips]

From now on, if I do any more trimmed circuit card fingers, I’m using hot nitric boils to release those foils. It was a breeze.

[@scrapman502]

The Peroxide method can work just as fast as using Nitric, You just need to HEAT the solution. Nitric would take longer as well if you did not heat it.

[@apleasantmisery]

Most of us ewaste scraper know there is small amounts of precious metals in electronic. As the saying goes "It takes alot to make a little." Some resell computers components or separate gold fingers for sale, like what sreetip demonstrated here. Some, like me, tear down, separate, and stock pile metals to turn in for cash. Metals found in ewaste are steels, copper, brass, various aluminums, tantalum, PGMs, silver, and gold. I thank you Sreetips for knowledge you're sharing. I have learn new better cost effective ways to process precious metals. I even started to buy and collect jewelry to increase my precious metals yields.

[@ArielleViking]

A really beautiful little button and fascinating that this was a quicker process. I've watched a few of these from others and it's always been a much more involved process. Gold, silver, precious metals and gems does interest me and not necessarily just because of its monetary value but the beauty of those items. 👍

[@Alondro77]

I use a slow process that soaks fingers and pins in HCl with just a little copper chloride, called the 'AP process'. It's cheap and you constantly generate more CuCl2 reagent in the process. I can just throw everything into a beaker and forget about it for a week. Doesn't even need bubbling. Just stir it well every few days. When white CuCl crystals begin to form and there's still base metal remaining, just pour off most of the concentrated waste and add more HCl. It works VERY well for pins. Nothing but foils are left over. For fingers, you still end up having to wash the thin gold off some of the cheaper, modern fingers. The old types do tend to fall off nicely.

[@goldsilverjunkie]

Fingerboards were my very first refines. Gotta start of somewhere 😅

[@jhoff6670]

Hi sreetips. I would love if you would discuss the costs you incur a little more. I know this is a hobby, but as prices change, it would be nice to hear about how much you would spend in chemicals on a process like this. I think it would be good for other would-be refiners to get a better idea of what they could be getting into.

[@sreetips]

Nitric is $50 for 2.5 liter bottle. I used about ten bucks worth. The scrap was $130 per pound. Hydrochloric is $12 per bottle. I used about two bucks worth. SMB was three spoons. Maybe fifty cents. So if your goal is to buy the scrap and immediately resell the recovered gold to gain more paper dollars (profit) than you started with, then forget it. My goal is to create content for my KZbin channel. I was glad to find a source that had that much scrap available to buy in one spot.

[@sreetips]

Computer scrap is very popular because of the belief that it contains much gold just waiting for those who can figure out how to get it. That’s just a myth. Electronics contain gold because they’d quit working if they didn’t. But it’s just trace amounts. The real money is in scrap karat gold; broken chains, bracelets, rings and necklaces. With gold so low, people are clueless about it. They believe, incorrectly, that paper dollars are more valuable than gold (and silver). This misconception has created a gold and silver buyers paradise. But some folks are starting to catch on. We’ve notice a steep decline in the amount of metal that can be found. But it’s still out there if you know when, where, and what to look for.

[@wethepeople7961]

and you rely on the word scrap to psychologically impair a seller into believing that their precious metal item is worthless...

[@sreetips]

No, I tell them that if they don’t need the money then they should just hang on to it because precious metals are trending up while the paper that about to pay them is going down. But that rarely happens. When they hear the amount that I can pay for their scrap, their jaws drop open, and they immediately take the cash, unmindful that the paper I’m giving them is declining and losing value faster than a snowball in July. In that sense, it’s phycological because they believe, incorrectly, that paper dollars are more valuable than gold (and silver).

[@douglasbrunelle]

​@@wethepeople7961, bet you think the guys from Pawn Stars feel bad too if the seller under sells because they don't have a clue what something is worth until they call in the expert. It's the sellers job to have an idea what it's worth and what they will accept, don't you use Offer Up?

[@russellf1339]

Just knowing you're doing this to share the results with us and NOT for the value of the gold is so PURE! Thanks for sharing 👍

[@4seasonspix]

Seeing the gold foil separate so beautifully, I would just dry the gold flakes and display them in a clear glass vial so they can be admired 😁💛 Although I have to admit, the gold button is beautiful 🌟

[@shaneyork300]

I know you most likely lose money when you make a computer scrap video, but it's always a good watch & wish you'd do more of them. Maybe next time you could do similar technique on different computer scrap, like gold pins. This is the way I'd want to process my computer scrap when I start to do it. I wouldn't care if I lost money because it is a hobby & hobbies usually cost money!!

[@DonariaRegia]

That is impressive! It went from taking months to same day service. Less waste solution to deal with as well. I'm convinced!

[@pedrorodriguez9709]

Awesome video Easier method than one of the other videos that I saw you did 👌🏼💯

[@sreetips]

Nitric is the way to go.

[@DavidDavis-.oddly.]

Gooood evening from central Florida! Hope everyone has a great night! Thanks for the content!

[@sreetips]

Goooood evening!

[@ricardodeangelo3851]

I'm glad you found an easier way of removing the gold from the circuits.

[@NOFX0890]

Best of luck for a quarter million subs by the end of 2023 Sreetips... You're so close. Great vid. If you can get the fingers at a fair price it might be closer to economically viable. Hope the YT ad bucks are currently assisting that. Thanks for sharing.

[@aga5897]

Superb ! That was way faster than anything i ever tried ! If you recall the Weir Effect thing, it'd be great to do the Nitric treatment in a glass cement-mixer. Adding a bit of water/nitric as the thing turned, at an angle, the gold foils would flow over the edge. Mostly they get trapped by the circuit boards, as you saw. AR directly on the FR-4 circuit board material could well have produced some things you might not like.

[@sreetips]

Excellent

[@82gamerprincess31]

That is a wild green color. Like Mt. Dew or anti-freeze lol.

[@Sackbladder]

Hi from Liverpool UK. Another awesome video! Definitely the best way to strip those fingers.

[@PopeyeFPV]

That's a lot of effort! Cool video Mr. Sreetips! Good job sir. 🇺🇸🤝🇺🇸

[@silentferret1049]

On those boards, it tends to be the copper layers where pretty much all the metals are attached unless they are bolted/screwed to the board. Going right after the copper seems to been the easiest way. If you get a large enough batch and can cycle through large boards and not just trimmed then you could recover a fair bit of copper and silver this way for basic refining to recoup some costs. Copper would be the highest yield volume wise. Even the cheap boards like in basic electronics would give up copper in the least. Silver could be in the contacts and solder at the low end. Good for a hobby unless you needed fine powdered copper/silver for maybe plating.

[@Alsacien]

The detaching of the plating with nitric acid worked beautifully. How spectacular! I would've been tempted to remove all the foils floating at the surface with a spoon before filtering the solution.

[@sreetips]

Me too, but that would just add another step.

[@Alsacien]

@@sreetips That's true! I posted this as I was watching the video and expected the recovery of the foils to be far more labor intensive. I assumed that they would stick to everything and that you'd have to rinse the circuit boards one by one. I didn't think that you'd do the aqua regia with the circuit boards still in the beaker, but it worked perfectly!

[@stevebuczek]

Well this was the fastest circuit finger waste refine ever .. I love watching this stuff!

[@sreetips]

It was quick and easy, like taking a breath of fresh air, compared to previous circuit card recoveries.

[@tomasdossantos4714]

Another splendid and didactic refining video, what a pro!

[@Antonowskyfly]

You’re welcome. This was a “no sweat” demo. Thank you Sir!👍👍🤟

[@jeepin4on4]

Thanks for sharing. I like refining e waste, guess it's the mystery on the yield that's addicting.

[@Joe.Rogan.]

This beats the pants off the peroxide method. 10 years ago I used nitric acid for CPU chips it took a lot longer and was a bit of a mess but I was just experimenting. The info online wasn't as good as it is today. Fun to see it done on fingers though.

[@RedneckEngineerMakerDude]

Here's an idea. This would probably be on the same lines as recovering gold from gold fingers (not profitable and maybe even LESS rewarding), but maybe fun for those who are hobbyists, or just plain curious. There are trace amounts of gold 'almost' everywhere, if you know what to look for. Your neck of the woods is no exception. Have you ever thought about going to a local creek, or stream and digging up a couple of bucket loads of dirt and gravel, from lower lying areas to process? Panning only reveals visible gold to those who do that. What about the gold that is too small to see, or does not 'look' like gold... kinda like ore, or cemented gold? Quite possibly a complete waste of time, but you must admit that it would be a curious experiment, just the same!

[@PoppinPortraits]

Nice fast job Sreetips, much quicker than many other methods, it’s all about time and effort really!❤❤✊

[@jonathanlawrie552]

I go Straight to AR with most stuff now including fingers as, Time is money, And it works very very well and very speedy. ❤

[@sreetips]

I have a video “Trimmed Fingers in Aqua Regia” posted on my channel. I didn’t like precipitating the gold from the dirty solution. But it did work ok. Can’t remember if the yield was affected or not.

[@jonathanlawrie552]

@@sreetips Sulphamic acid - iron sulphate - boil au precipitate in HCL - Re Refine - then Ascorbic acid. Quickest Method I believe when time is your enemy.

[@sreetips]

I watched that old video and concluded that it best to remove base metals (like I did in this video) before going to aqua regia.

[@bismargoldmining]

really great video my friend, thank you for sharing the video my friend. 👍🇮🇩🔔🔔🔔🤝🙏

[@RafalScrapper]

preety little shiny bugger ... cheers sir well done 👍

[@alllove1754]

Hey there, just a tip to you because I like watching your methods the most, strenuous as you are toward getting back that gold. You might condense your videos to 10 to 15 minutes, at least SOME of them, as those are the ones you might get back the most traffic. But your analysis stats probably say better.

[@markgriz]

Your videos are interesting and educational. Have you ever calculated your profit, accounting for the cost of chemicals, raw materials, waste disposal, etc. I know that's not really the goal, but would be interesting to know

[@sreetips]

The profit in paper dollars: less than zero

[@MADDLADO1]

You make it look so easy Mr. Spiteers

[@ChiriKain]

after watching a bunch of these videos i can see why goldmember liked gold so much.

[@davidmccleary5540]

Gold always gives a good show

[@dr.a006]

That’s a nice “dot of pure gold”!

[@ottolehikoinen6193]

Very interesting process, thank you. Some of the colors seen are likely due to the boards themselves and might be tricky to remove from the waste?

[@sreetips]

Copper in solution is blue. Gold in solution is yellow. Blue and yellow make green.

[@wsoares1976]

And i have a question... I did 2 reactions together and one resulted in a blue liquid. I know blue is the expecting colour to the copper reaction with HNO3 which results in Copper Nitrate. But the other became Green... Could you share some thoughts about this green colour? Scraps I own are full of Gold, Silver and Copper... I dont know what else.

[@sreetips]

Copper in solution is blue. Gold in solution is yellow. Blue plus yellow equals green.

[@PaulBrown-uj5le]

As usual a great gold processing video from sreetips 👍🏻

[@josephcormier5974]

Yes sir this was much faster and easier then the last time and you got just what you thought you would six stars

[@hiddentruth1982]

If you want an easier way to get the water out of the gold try pouring it on to a paper towel and then you twist the towel to press the water out. Rip off the part where the gold is and then proceed as normal. You can burn the paper towel in the melt dish to get rid of it and pool the gold.

[@darrellsmith5395]

Excellent video

[@cadleo]

Stannous says, "Bend the knee!"

[@PaulBrown-uj5le]

G.o.T throwback lol.

[@prestontucker6171]

Underrated reference! Well done.

[@alberteinstein3078]

Muh Lady!!

[@mohsinali660]

Very well-done sir love and respect for you from Pakistan 👍👌❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@sreetips]

Thank you!

[@naughtiusmaximus830]

I’m experimenting with whole card electrolysis. If I learn anything interesting I’ll let you know. Thanks for the video!

[@ImanGoldRecovery]

perfect video big boss 👍👍👍🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

[@dbaca148]

Amazing. Great job sreetips!

[@barthanes1]

You might could use a bit less acid if you cut the fiberboard down into smaller pieces so it's easier to submerge.

[@sreetips]

Agree

[@Emma-cq9oy]

Glad you noticed before trying to pick up the Gold button with your hand after melting 😅

[@davehazel1994]

we know you love processing ewaste lol great vid as per usual

[@joek511]

That's the only way I do fingers. AP will dissolve gold as well so I stopped doing it a long time ago. Dilute HNO3 works fast. I have done 20 lbs of fingers in a day. I have even melted the foils and Xrayed the buttons, they come it at about 22k on average. So when I get them recoverd I let them sit for a while in fresh Nitric. Give them a few water boils and go to AR. Most cases it comes in at 997 +. Given you don't get paid any more for 999 then you do for 997 . I just sell it to the refiner

[@ifindmetal]

How about sanding the gold off and sweeping up the powder and doing nitric then filter the aqua

[@scotthultin7769]

54👍's up sreetips thank you for sharing

[@seaofredkc]

What do you think about grinding it in blender or coffee grinder, then incinerate in the electric oven??

[@sreetips]

Sounds like an extra step

[@ANDYGLEGENDSSING]

Awesome video I learn so much from u thanku

[@IIIKNOW3]

Love it! Thanks Sreetips!

[@osmia3561]

My prayers have been heard.. computer scrap!❤

[@jamest8536]

Suggestion, since you teach us so much. One more legal reservation of rights commonly used for video/film is an “all rights reserved” it sounds broad but tested & defined by case law, this also covers your creative genius..!

[@sreetips]

Good suggestion, thank you.

[@timsmith9645]

Awesome gold dot thanks for sharing sreetips

[@adws5696]

Yeeesss!!!! A new Sreetips video!

[@SaltyMeatHook]

"Add a splash (nitric acid), maybe 50ml" I know what 50ml looks like, and that was on point! So with the nitric acid trick to remove the gold fingers, was it worth it? Not just making easier, but is it viable?

[@sreetips]

No

[@RedneckEngineerMakerDude]

Okay, the yield is 3.6 grams of gold from two pounds of computer fingers. How much did the fingers cost?

[@sreetips]

Doesn’t matter. The value is in the video. The gold I recovered, that was just a bonus.

[@scrapman502]

some of those circuit board fingers have copper INSIDE the middle. They might be multi-layered and have copper inside. A long boil in nitric may not be enough to remove it all. I haven't fully watched the video yet, but I can predict the outcome.

[@gelmgren]

Gold plated fingers and pins will abrade off in a rock tumbler no other media required filter and save the brown powder.

[@andrewh3141]

Great video! As a fellow refiner, I have a quick question for you. I’ve always been cautioned against using AR while the PCB are still present due to the fact that the boards can and do absorb the acid. Are you concerned that you’ve lost some of the yield because it’s still trapped in the PCB boards?

[@sreetips]

Possibly

[@gallezzo6650]

Obviously, this is educational because I can't picture him doing this for profit.

[@sreetips]

I did this to prove to myself that nitric boils would release the gold foils.

[@michaelmorris6575]

Great video! Thanks for sharing.

[@patrickaussieMilartry]

I wonder how would the removal of gold plate from electrolytes and electrolysis?? I've done alot with silver in the past but compared to other methods it sure is a messy long process with silver. But I say to anyone money is able to be made if you need it desparatly. But I've never ever bothered to read up about gold plating. Cheers as always mate.👍🇦🇺

[@sreetips]

There is gold to be had from gold plated junk jewelry. But the amount is tiny. Gold plated scrap is best processed in a sulfuric acid stripping cell.

[@patrickaussieMilartry]

@@sreetips cheers for that saved me a small experiment. Take care as always mate.

[@tonywharton5220]

Not sure if it's possible Mr T but what about the same experiment in a heated ultrasonic cleaner. I think those foils would jump off 👍

[@floydsallee2041]

That was real interesting

[@jackmclane1826]

Great video! Sadly the shipping to Europe is more than the value. Otherwise I would've picked up one of your pieces. Do you have a smart way to recover gold from gold plated brass pieces? The plating is thick enough to theoretically be worth while with an efficient process. But dissolving all in nitric acid uses up pretty much all value in nitric acid.

[@sreetips]

In the USA a thick coating of karat gold over brass is called; Gold Filled. I have several videos showing how I recover the gold from gold filled material.

[@jackmclane1826]

​@@sreetips It is not gold filled. It is thinner than that. It is gold plating on connectors. Mil spec telecom grade ~10 microns. And a lot of that. So there is wuite some value in there and I'm looking for a way to get it without spending most of it on acids. ;) I have a look at what you did there to see it is applicable.

[@NOFX0890]

Search: Sreetips sulphuric acid stripping cell.

[@AvinashM-e3c]

what if we use RO water or Tap water in entire process instead of distilled water? will there be any difference in Gold output or purity? Let me know.

[@sreetips]

Tap water is parts per million. Not enough to register in a gold assay.

[@Metal-Nine11]

Always great videos.

[@mitchsguideservice]

Great video. Like always! I do have a a question. Why would you not be able to use aqua Regia to put all the metals in solution at the beginning. Then separate the solution from the fiber boards then process the solution accordingly? I have no experience at all other than what I have learned from sreetips so it may be a stupid question but either way, you get pushed up on the algorithm. Thanks!

[@sreetips]

AR forms a very dirty solution with the base metals

[@scrappydoo7887]

Because you would create more work for yourself if you want pure gold because you will put all of the metals into solution.

[@ottolehikoinen6193]

More elements in the board might also go into solution. I need to watch the AR part again, was it done on an ice bath or not?

[@waynecombs6562]

I really enjoyed this video I think I could do that for the amount of steps it takes

[@charlesReed239]

Hey bud, just wondering if your camera equipment takes a bit of a hit from the gasses off all the chemicals you use?

[@sreetips]

I haven’t noticed any hits

[@jackmclane1826]

Going through your vids to find what helps me the most on my task. A word on computer scrap: Computer scrap refining only makes sense to me, if you get the stuff for free. And even then you would be better off to sell the fingers than to extract the gold. I wonder what you paid for the fingers. It feels like often they are more expensive than the actual gold in there.

[@sreetips]

You are correct in saying this.

[@1969MAN]

Woot woot!!!

[@ThorTubeview]

Excellent video as usual. A usefull methode to save time and nitric acide is to use a solder iron to detach gold foils. Try it if the opportunity arises ;-) and let me know the result, if you want. Best Regards. Sylvain

[@sreetips]

I’d rather let the chemicals do all that for me.

[@ThorTubeview]

@@sreetips I understand that, in fact. But, if you permit it, I maintain that using Iron Solder will kept you several time and acid. However, I can understand that you take times to explain and use acide nitric. Indeed, here in Belgium, we can't have Nitric Acids for buying. Sinds attacks in Europe. Stupid, I know, but that's it. So I hope, you'll soon teach us to refine precious metals without nitric acide. And hope you'll continue your greats videos. Best Regards, Sylvain, from Belgium.

[@petesmith13]

Yeah those fingers seem to be a bit of a waste, MBMM has shown that its far more economical to just get full boards, crush them and then use shaker tables to separate the gold

[@shepardsinsequence]

Hi Sreetips! Just out of curiosity, would the process of extraction and refinement of AU, be any better benefitted if you used Mercury ( Hg) in your process?

[@sreetips]

No, because I don’t know how that works.

[@ExtractingMetals]

That green solution looked pretty neat. I wonder what made it that color…

[@sreetips]

Copper in solution is blue. Gold in solution is yellow. Blue and yellow make green.

[@TerribleShmeltingAccident]

@@sreetipsis that the only possibility for the green color? I wanna say I’ve seen green before when trying to de-gold circuit boards but always before the AR step

[@sreetips]

Nickel in solution is green. But the most likely is copper in solution with gold.

[@thegoodlookinorange1986]

CHIEF this Buck Sgt. needs to know what the blue in solution is. Copper or maybe the boards? Thanks for always answering sir.

[@sreetips]

Copper

[@alanpecherer5705]

I'm not sure I liked putting the filter paper full of gold foils you had at 10:57 into the larger beaker with the partially-digested plastic parts. Seems like it is going backwards in terms of isolating the desired end result..

[@sreetips]

I thought the same thing right after I did it. But alls well that ends well

[@williamfoote2888]

It was actually pretty smart. He kept the Au together. The HNO3 boils put the Ni and Cu into solution and left the Au foils, more or less alone. He was able to filter off the Cu(NO3)2 solution (blue) and leave the foils in a Ni(NO3)2 solution. (Green). Once all the Au was put into solution, including the foils in the filter paper, he had all the Au ready for reduction. The plastic left behind was clean and unimportant. I gotta say, as these things go, it’s very doable.

[@diegohenrique3388]

my dear friend please tell me what is the use of electrolytic silver? For what kind of market can I offer goldsmiths, baths, dentists ??? who uses it the most. thank you very much in advance ... congratulations for the videos .

[@sreetips]

I use silver to store my savings. But it has many industrial uses. Silver is the best conductor of electricity and heat, over all other metals on the periodic table.

[@marioeduardoflores7577]

Hi there! are those any kind of special filters or i could just use regular coffee filters for this process? Thanks for sharing this great content!! Very useful!!

[@sreetips]

I’m using lab grade filters. But several coffee filters should work just fine.

[@marioeduardoflores7577]

@@sreetips Thanks for the response. Much appreciated!

[@mcmetal632]

Hello sreetips: I was just wondering if once you got the foils off of the fiber boards if you could just melt the gold foils and form gold shot then put the shot into your gold cell ? Enjoy your videos always interesting, thanks.

[@sreetips]

No, the foils are only about 12k gold. The electrolytic gold cells requires fairly high purity gold for the anode.

[@mcmetal632]

@@sreetips Oh! Okay . Always looking for a way for less refining waste . Thank you.

[@whendarknessfalls6969]

Hey sreetips are you familiar with the "Baghdad battery"? Ive been curious if these artifacts could have been silver cells instead of batteries. What are your thoughts?

[@sreetips]

I’ve seen it on TV

[@frantiseklaluch6605]

Hello sir, I just checked my bubling AP solution with pins. Looks like gold is free after a week. Filtering and cupeling today after work... Expecting 3 g of gpld... Nitric is so fast and afficient compared to AP....

[@uspockdad6429]

I wonder if you could reduce the cost of recovering the gold foils by adding either sodium or potassium nitrate to sulfuric to make a poor-man’s nitric. I know nitric is expensive and anything to reduce cost is always good for scrappers.

[@sreetips]

I’ve never used poor-man’s nitric.

[@hussbilbs]

Sree Sree Sree!

[@Lctv182]

Your amazing at this sir How did you understand metal and the way it works mate ?

[@sreetips]

I just kept at it with an intense desire to succeed.

[@jamisontaylor878]

Excellent video thank you 😊

[@DEmma1972]

Thank you for the tech scrap. Might not be profitable but its great content. Did I see the gold being dissolved off the fingers in the actual vapour?

[@sreetips]

Yes