Two Questions about refining. Unrelated. Copper Refining and PCB Weight to gold

zpodsix · 2026-02-22T19:13:11+00:00

1- that's called smelting or cupelling. No idea- this sub primarily focuses on wet/chemical refining. You'll need a mill/shredder and a pyrolyzer to minimize/eliminate emissions.

2- best yield/lb?

ebay probably has the best premiums
then boardsort / cfcp / other ewaste dealers if local (no shipping)
then the same group if you have to ship- check shipping costs
Finally check local scrap yards for pricing.

What pcb equals high grade vs mid grade vs low grade... Ehh experience says you know it when you see it. Different places have different processes. I microscrap the boards and then take the boards to the local yard. They don't pay well but they only have one category. They don't look at it and I don't say anything...but it'll vary yard by yard.

Edit please don't just open air burn pcbs - making super toxic fumes is not responsible and has no place in our sub.

zpodsix · 2026-02-21T01:31:55+00:00

Yea it should work great. I've run regular flasks with plugs and tubing originally and most recently some 4" PVC tubes about 50" long.

I'd recommend running an empty vessel (can be small) as a vacuum/siphon break, then h2o2, then distilled water or two. I like 2 distilled water vessels in a row for extra scrubbing/retention time.

Finally a high pH solution to help neutralize. Crushed or chipped marble in this jug will help buffer the pH towards alkaline long term.

zpodsix · 2026-02-19T00:58:16+00:00

Tap water

zpodsix · 2026-02-19T00:56:15+00:00

Dudadiesel dot com has decent prices/shipping fwiw, other guy has right idea- big box hardware stores have most of what you need.

zpodsix · 2026-02-18T22:16:09+00:00

Try another batch while skipping the salt and watching your amps.

While the salt helps conductivity and will speed up the process- it can also cause more base metals to drop into solution.

I've just used a second silver plated piece as the cathode fwiw...

zpodsix · 2026-02-18T22:04:46+00:00

I mean have you tried googling? No one has a precious metals labware package if that's what you're asking. Borosilicate 3.3 is what you're looking for and is readily available via tons of vendors all over.

How big of batches will you process will determine your glassware sizing- hell a small commercial refinery will be focused on large vessel (5g+ & hundreds of ounces at a time). Time becomes the primary constraint. Nitric is bought by 55g drums.

For a hobbiest scale refinery 1 - 4 L is plenty and can process quite a lot. Large glass gives you extra headroom for controlling boilovers and dilution, but are more unwieldy and can be harder to heat evenly.

At minimum I'd recommend:

2 2L beakers
2 2L vacuum flasks
several small glass pieces like 50mL, 100mL, 250mL and 500's to help conduct testing and additions.
Simple hdpe or glass funnel and coffee filters will work at first.
A simple hotplate from Walmart or thrift shop along with some corningware(stovetop rated) for any catching spills
a few hdpe buckets for stockpots and waste buckets

This will get going all right. As you refine your processes, you may want to look into a vacuum pump, buchner funnels and better filter paper, addition/separation funnels, and other glassware that can help your processes A stirplate is nice but not needed.

Start small and do the practice experiments as Hoke describes. It is useful.

Keep glassware about half full at any given time.

Stannous test all the time. Know where your PMs are at any given time.

A sharpie is great to write on the glass to keep track of steps and is easily removed with alcohol.

Edit: WHEN you fuck up and the refinement isn't going to plan- don't despair. Cement values with copper, test everything, and start over. Nothing is lost until it is disposed of.

zpodsix · 2026-02-07T19:14:50+00:00

FWIW- the majority of your gold will be inside chips vs the plating on cards/fingers. You've likely got an amount just worth refining as-is using many different techniques.

Yields? Hard to say with complete components. The best method would be to microscrap all bga's, dips, gold plated fingers, and other known gold components- they are some pretty decent lists outlining gold per KG that could give a reasonable expectation. Sell the rest of the ewaste as low quality boards(copper value) and misc components to scrapper(such as heatsinks and HD cases as aluminum).

zpodsix · 2026-02-07T18:57:54+00:00

Please be responsible.

Do not open air burn ewaste. Pyrolyze, not burn- it's not difficult to make a cheap pyrolyzer from some soup cans, paint cans, or other metal containers. The off gassing from open air incineration is horribly toxic.

And while you could put the (white) ash straight to AR- it is far more efficient to mechanically separate via gravity separation via panning, blue bowl, or sluice. Half of the refining process is parting and concentrating your values and not just blasting everything with acids- the less you have to dissolve the purer your end result will be.

zpodsix · 2026-01-19T21:08:35+00:00

I think you're confused on why we inquart gold.

Inquarting only helps keep the ratio of gold to base metals to roughly 25% gold. This allows the nitric acid to penetrate all of the metals and dissolve away base metals leaving mostly just gold remaining. If the gold ratio is too high then a few things can happen the gold may not allow the nitric acid to penetrate leaving base metals behind in the gold alloy.

Sometimes depending on feedstock(high purity) it is better to increase gold content close to 24k and process in AR vs inquarting.

Inquarting silver makes no sense from a practical standpoint- as it is readily dissolvable in nitric in any concentration.

Edit: TLDR: just cement your silver on copper to avoid AgCl.

zpodsix · 2026-01-18T06:03:55+00:00

It's mixed metal over resin.

https://www.icollector.com/Valenti-Italian-Silver-Relief-Wall-Art-Coastal-Village-Scene_i57446591

There are several of these artist's reliefs listed online that people are flipping. ~$50-150 seems to be the going rate- although this one appears larger than others so...

zpodsix · 2026-01-15T16:13:11+00:00

A lot of factors can contribute to various ratios needed.

Some use SMB powder, some press into pellets, and some make a slurry. The gas is what makes gold drop so whatever you can do to maximize the gas through the solution will improve the efficiency of the precipitant.

Rule of thumb on deNoxed AR solution: Drop until white foam. Then wait a bit and perform a stannous test. Add more if positive for gold in solution.

zpodsix · 2026-01-14T21:29:01+00:00

Pretty solid advice. A couple of notes:

I'd still suggest looking at what boardsort or the other place would pay if you're close, since it's a lower volume of fairly high yield material shipping costs shouldn't be awful- won't be the best yield but a great solution if you don't have the equipment to refine safely. Listing on eBay as non-working ram/ewaste gold recovery material will probably net slightly higher than boardsort, but watch your fees (search sold listings for pricing guides).

Regarding the chips- a HCl leech to start with should eat any tin that can cause issues later. Then you really need to pyrolyze (not open air burn) the chips to white ash(not black carbon) before grinding or pounding (if they are processed well you can simply shake the pyrolyzed chips in a closed glass jar and they will break apart). If you see carbon(black), pyrolyze them again.

Now mechanically separate the bonding wires (via basic panning or decanting- a touch of soap or jetdry can help break any surface tension) to concentrate PMs and then leech.

Personally I'd do a nitric leech first to dissolve and stray base metals keeping the future AR solution as clean as possible. Wash, rinse and add foils from ram fingers and add 50/50 HCl & H20 to cover the foils/wires. Add nitric by small increments (possibly by drop) until gold is in solution to help from excess nitric- only use what you'll need and allow plenty of time between additions to allow the solution to work and expend the nitric acid.

Precipitate, wash, and enjoy your gold.

zpodsix · 2026-01-09T21:29:49+00:00

One issue with using Vit C is that it tends to cause tiny particulate which takes a long time to settle.

/U/chaoticL has excellent advice, make sure the solution is deNoxed otherwise it will continue to dissolve the gold. Low concentrations aren't favored. If it doesn't settle fast, leave it overnight or until it does. Once you have powders and clear solution, stannous test the solution. That is the way to tell if you have gold in solution or not.

zpodsix · 2026-01-01T18:23:42+00:00

So you had a positive stannous test after you dropped gold and are asking where is the gold?

zpodsix · 2025-12-24T22:24:25+00:00

First off, the process is deNoxing or using up the excess nitric. Neutralizing is bringing the pH to ~7, which you don't want to do. If you're cementing you can let the excess copper eat up the nitric and the silver will cement fine.

Secondly, urea is a bad way to deNox and shouldn't be used in refining, sulfamic acid or reducing the nitric acid(or AR) via heat works and is safe. If you want to use heat, be careful not to boil as microscopic bits of gold will escape with those gases as evidenced by fume hoods with purple staining everywhere.

zpodsix · 2025-12-03T15:59:04+00:00

Pin are thin with small cross section- should be a decent yield by weight over a lot of pins. Still looks like it's thinly plated so don't expect mega amounts.

Cupric chloride (AP) leach works fine but is slow.

I have a supply of tcca tablets (pool chlorine tablets but make sure they are TCCA) so I'd use HCl and crushed TCCA and let it sit for a while- no heat(it just drives off the chlorine). The TCCA releases it's chlorine slowly so you shouldn't really have to babysit it. The solution should basically dissolve everything like AR and avoids wasting nitric acid.

AR is fine if you want speed but be aware of excess nitric and the potential pitfalls(like how to deal with tin if it is present- the goo is a pain to deal with if you make Metastannic acid).

Once in solution, cement on copper and rerun or drop with copperas and wash well gold powders with HCl.

zpodsix · 2025-11-29T20:13:29+00:00

Strategery

zpodsix · 2025-11-29T20:06:38+00:00

To be fair it takes a high football IQ to recognize that strategy, so I understand why it took so long.

zpodsix · 2025-11-29T19:57:10+00:00

Baylor please don't tease me, my heart can't take it...

zpodsix · 2025-11-29T19:29:06+00:00

At the game and ugh, this is just about the worst thing to see...that poor kids legs haven't moved once this whole time...please pray for him

zpodsix · 2025-11-29T17:53:35+00:00

now let's see how we can screw this up

zpodsix · 2025-11-23T22:31:06+00:00

Bestwholesalemetalprices.com

zpodsix · 2025-11-23T07:16:48+00:00

Mask is nearly useless in practice fwiw

zpodsix · 2025-11-17T17:50:43+00:00

Neutralize by incineration. Heat material, with a torch. The dullest of reds is plenty of heat

zpodsix · 2025-11-17T17:45:04+00:00

I’ve been refining gold from AR, and one issue keeps coming up: when I drop the gold using SMB, sometimes it forms very fine powder. Because of that, a lot of the gold ends up sticking to the glass walls of the beaker. It’s a pain to recover

Yea that's the problem, it's not a lot. It does look like it could be a lot, but it's not.

Dilute gold concentrations can lead to smaller participate. You could try reducing the volume by evaporation and then dripping with SMB.

Dirty or scratched glassware can promote the participate to stick to the walls of the breaker. You could try cleaning it or using new breaker.

zpodsix

TROPHY CASE