HOW TO EXTRACT GOLD FOILS FROM ELECTRONICS THROUGH HOMEMADE METHODS WITH IMAGES

Do you know Hundreds of tonnes of gold can be recovered from old electronics devices such as mobile phones, Television and computers, Your old phones may be more valuable than you think.

Gold is used on electronic circuit boards because it has excellent conductive properties and does not corrode over time.

When it comes to gold salvaging or mining large quantities of gold are recovered every year from mobile phones, sim cards and Atm cards.

STEP 1: SAFETY FIRST

Aquire apparatus, chemicals and safety equipments

FOR SAFETY

googles, rubber gloves, glass mask and a well ventilated area if it is not done outside

FOR APPARATUS
one glass beaker, coffee filter, scissors, and two plastic cups

CHEMICALS

(toilet bowl cleaner)

Hydrogen peroxide (can be found in pharmacies), toilet bowl cleaner (must contain hydrochloric acid). Lab grade hydrochloric acid can also be used, sufficient clean water is also needed.

STEP 2: PREPARATION OF ELECTRONIC FOR.
EXTRACTION

take your phone and pull out any PCB (printed circuit board), are boards made from coated surfaces having gold foils, search for gold plaitings on the pcb. Break them into bits to fit into the glass beaker.

STEP 4 : CLEANING OF THE PCB

rinse the pcb under clean sufficient water and dry thoroughly.

STEP 5: CREATING AN ETCHING SOLUTION

Take the bowl cleaner and hydrogen peroxide, mix them equally well to form a solution enough to fully submerge the pcbs.The solution is called etching solution because it dissolves the nickel under the gold which detached the nickel free from the gold foils. Put the pcbs in the solution and make sure they are fully submerged. Depending on the concentration of chemical used, i used 3% peroxide and the toilet bowl cleaner was 9.5% hydrochloric acid.

NOTE :

This is hazardous because of the amount of chlorine gas released, make sure safety equipments is used and it is carried out in a well ventilated area.

STEP 6 : WAITING

Wait for the gold foils to come off the pcb, once you get gold foils floating around wait for a day to make sure all nickel is free from the gold.

STEP 7: THE GOLD FOILS EXTRACTION

Pull out all the pcbs and scrape off any gold foils still attached to the pcb (make sure you're using safety gloves) then fully submerge it into clean water. Add some water to the etching solution filled with gold then thin out the solution gradually when the gold foils have settled to the bottom by pouring out little solution and adding clean water, repeat this process until the solution is thin enough to pass through the filter.

STEP 8: FILTERING OUT GOLD FOILS FROM THE.
SOLUTION

Pour the thin solution containing the gold foils into the filter which is over a cup, make sure you do not rip the filter else it would be repeated. After pulling out all the gold continue to run clean water through the filter to make the gold clean.

STEP 9 : REMOVING THE GOLD FOILS FROM THE.
FILTER
Turn the filer inside out over the cup and add little clean water to the top of the filter to push the gold foils off into the cup wait for the gold foils to settle then get as much water out of the cup carefully until you are left with Gold.

NOTE : Dispose all waste properly after usage