May 18, 2021
Soviet electronics is rich in radio components that contain precious metals. They played an important role, so it was simply impossible to do without gold, silver and platinum with palladium. Precious metals were present in all radio components, and they even existed in ordinary home rotary and push-button telephones, which were in all apartments in the USSR.
It is worth understanding why Soviet engineers added precious metals to radio components and which Soviet telephone sets contained precious metals.
Presence of precious metals in old Soviet phones
Where does the gold in phones come from and where is it contained?
Noble metals are indeed found in mobile phones, but the answer to the question of how much gold is in the device depends on the model. This is explained by the fact that the precious metal has good properties, low resistance, and durability. In detail, this substance does not react or interact with other materials, and does not change the accuracy of operation and characteristics over time. Therefore, the use of gold, even in small quantities, is truly justified.
Gold in mobile phones
In addition to mobile phones, the precious metal can be found in sufficient quantities in radio components and computer mechanisms. It is even present in SIM cards that are inserted into the phone. Gold, used for technical purposes and not for jewelry, has a high standard, so the question of the benefits of extracting the substance from an unnecessary gadget is interesting.
It is necessary to take into account that gold was used in older phone models in larger quantities, while in modern smartphones it is practically absent. The phones also contain:
- copper - up to 15 grams;
- ceramics;
- silver - up to 0.25 grams;
- cobalt.
Up to 0.024 grams of gold can be obtained from one model, most often from circuit boards and contacts. A particle of precious metal can be found in all conductive parts. The figure seems quite miniscule, but if you take up to 40 phones, then this is exactly how much precious metal is mined from one ton of processed ore. In addition, the price of gold per gram today makes one think about this method of enrichment, since up to 100 rubles can be extracted from one faulty model. This figure only takes into account gold, but there are other elements as well.
Methods for extracting precious metals from mobile phones
You can find devices either at home, as well as from friends and acquaintances, or advertise the purchase of old models. Moreover, non-working devices will do. Since the presence of gold is really not a myth, you can start extracting it and visually find out how much gold is contained there. First you need to disassemble the phone. The battery does not matter in this matter; it must be disposed of or used for other purposes.
Cellular device parts are cleaned using strong reagents, and future gold goes through the purification stages of dissolution and precipitation. Or the galvanization method is used, in which the gold is separated under the action of electrodes. The second method is more effective, faster and safer, but galvanization is an expensive process, unlike the use of reagents.
Not only ordinary people and those who want to earn money, but also scientists are engaged in mining gold from phones. They are the ones who fight for a clean environment, and it doesn’t matter how much gold ends up in the phone. Thus, Swedish recycling companies are actively involved in the extraction of precious metals. Up to 300 grams of gold and a kilogram of silver are extracted from a ton of devices, which can significantly reduce the amount of unnecessary waste and make production waste-free.
The companies report that the money raised in this way will go to the needs of developing countries and people living below the poverty line. The funds will also be used to protect the environment. The devices have already begun to be accepted at cellular communication stores and handed over for recycling. On such a scale, this is a really profitable business, and people now know how much gold is in a cell phone and where they can put their old phone instead of throwing it in the trash.
Of course, if you do this alone, then even if you buy several kilograms of phones, the business will not be profitable; on the contrary, it will become labor-intensive and pointless. If you are already recycling old devices, it is better to coordinate and organize actions throughout the country and use expensive equipment to extract the precious metal.
Like any other electronic device, a mobile phone contains a variety of valuable metals, including silver or gold. Before throwing away your old mobile phone, it makes sense to extract the gold from it.
Where to look for it?
So, we figured it out - cell phones contain precious metals. But in order to find them, you need to know where to look. Gold in the phone can be:
- on old mobile phones you can try looking for gold on the button contacts;
- very often there is a lot of gold on the contact pads of microcircuits;
- somewhat less of this precious metal can be found inside the microcircuits themselves;
- a lot of it is found on the coatings of the contacts of cables and coaxial antennas;
- According to some reports, gold can also be extracted from speakers and microphones.
Is it true
Almost any electronics - and, of course, a mobile phone too - contains ceramics, precious metals and rare earth chemical elements. Of course, the amount of “values” in such a relatively small device as a mobile phone is negligible.
The largest share in the metal component of mobile phones is copper - in some cases up to 15 grams of this metal can be extracted. On average, mobile phones contain about 8.5 g of copper (its designation in the periodic table of elements is Cu). The amount of a transition metal called cobalt (Co) or the common iron (Fe) in a mobile phone is very small - about 3 grams.
And finally, the most interesting thing: very little precious metals can be extracted from a mobile phone: about 0.25 g of silver (Ag), which is found in circuit boards and contacts, and also an average of about 0.024 gold (Au). These 24 milligrams of the coveted metal are distributed over all contacts and current-carrying paths. This amount of gold is contained in a cube with a side length of 1 mm.
It would seem very little, but at the current price of gold (about 2,300 rubles per gram as of January 2021), gold worth 63 rubles “rusts” in an old, unused mobile phone. In distant Africa or at a mine in Siberia, as much as 25 kg of gold ore will have to be processed to extract a similar amount of precious metal.
The matter is not limited to gold alone: each mobile phone on average contains expensive raw materials worth more than 130 rubles. If we remember that, according to the German information technology association Bitkom, in 2011, residents of Germany had about 83 million old mobile phones lying around at home, then this adds up to an impressive amount: about 180 million euros are simply collecting dust in closets and desk drawers. In the figure on the right you can see what metals and in what quantities are contained in mobile phones.
The value of raw materials in unused mobile phones is more than 2.5 billion euros
Gold and silver are what you could extract from old cell phones before throwing them in the trash! In theory, everything is correct, but in practice it is better not to try to do this. There are precious metals in old mobile phones, and this is not a myth. However, the cost of reverse galvanization, which extracts gold from other substances, would be equal to the cost of the raw material extracted from hundreds of mobile phones.
For the disposal of electronic devices, there are special recycling points where valuable metals are extracted, and most importantly, the toxic substances they contain are neutralized, which helps keep the environment safe for living.
Photo:
manufacturing companies
The use and development of the gold mineral resource base is determined by the development of the international financial system. Over the past three decades, the consumption of gold for industrial needs has tripled, and the areas of application have expanded many times. It is for this reason that many are interested in how to extract gold from old electronics.
Use of gold in industry
Technologically new devices and technologies make it possible to use gold in an unusual role. The number of devices based on boards using gold is growing: tablets, smartphones, laptops. This industry is developing at a tremendous pace: every season new, not always improved, models are released, which are quickly sold on the market, meanwhile, the need for old models is disappearing, consumerism is growing, leaving a lot of outdated equipment on the street. And this is only a small part of the development of the modern world. New models of computers and phones are replacing outdated ones, and this process is not at all due to increasing requirements for technology, but is dictated by marketing specialists.
Modern electronics are designed to last a short period of time solely so that people would pay money more often and buy a new one. Many printers have a limit on the number of pages they can produce. When this number ends, a perfectly working device simply stops printing. In order to make it work, you need to crack the code laid down by the manufacturer. For most consumers, it is easier and cheaper to buy new equipment. Old refrigerators work for several decades, new, modern refrigerators, equipped with imaginable and inconceivable functions, “burn out” in a matter of years. Due to such a huge increase in product consumption, industry requires more materials, including gold.
Gold is actively used in various fields of medicine, especially in dentistry.
For the vast majority of technical devices and in medical technologies, the presence of gold in production has absolutely no effect on the price. This is the reason for the increasing use of gold in industry.
Research conducted around the world is expanding the boundaries of the use of this precious metal. Although the public is unlikely to see anything from science fiction films, research gives positive results and makes it possible to reduce metal consumption, meanwhile expanding the areas of its use.
Today, there are six groups of gold use, knowledge of the latter will help answer the question “which old devices most likely contain gold”:
- Transport;
- Electronics and telecommunications;
- Energy and heat regulation;
- Chemistry and petrochemistry;
- Medicine;
- Nanotechnology.
Despite its weight, gold is actively used in aviation and spacecraft. The precious metal is used where corrosion is unacceptable, namely in the connections of engine parts, shuttle windows are covered with the thinnest gold film to prevent harmful radiation from penetrating inside, and electrical contacts are sealed with it. Since the eighties, the state has spent about forty kilograms of gold on the construction of space shuttles.
In automobile transport, gold plays the most important role as a conductor; thanks to this metal, it is much safer to drive modern cars. Gold is used in microcircuits responsible for critical automotive systems and helps catalyze unburned fuel, which helps reduce emissions of the latter into the atmosphere.
In electronics, the importance of gold is beyond doubt: every smartphone, tablet, iPad, computer, candy bar and cell phone have gold in their circuit boards. It is this metal that contributes to the fast operation and reliability of these devices. Therefore, the gold content, including in Intel processors, is beyond doubt.
Solar energy storage systems also contain gold, which helps improve the efficiency of solar energy collection.
Intel processors contain a high percentage of gold.
In hot climates, using gold in glass window panels helps prevent excess heat from entering, thereby making offices and homes cozier and reducing the need for air conditioning, which in turn reduces energy costs.
In the chemical industry, catalysts containing gold help control chemical reactions and produce the necessary substances. Gold catalysts are used to completely convert feedstocks into chemical products that help convert plastics and paints into relatively harmless substances.
In medicine, gold is used to improve the quality of medical instruments, expanding the usual ways of treating people. Gold is used for arthritis and is found in hearing and eye implants. In the future, it is expected to use gold nanoparticles as drug deliverers to target human organs.
Carbon nanotubes contain precious metal.
Gold is also widely used in nanotechnology: carbon nanotubes, optical chips. The use of gold in this area is due to the exceptional properties of its particles.
Microcircuits containing gold
First of all, you should look for the Soviet period - in imported ones the precious metal content is minimal. In many microcircuits, the gold is hidden under the copper casing. You can find out exactly the content of gold alloy in old microcircuits only by looking at the passport for this or that equipment.
Many microcircuits contain gold.
Gold is also found in round, ceramic, planar DIP microcircuits and transistors, plastic cases, and power transistors. In ALS indicators and diodes. In domestically produced connectors, pins with white or yellow coating of contact parts. In lamellas from boards. In ceramic monolithic capacitors of some brands, tantalum capacitors. In some switches, toggle switches, buttons, resistors. In rotation angle and pressure sensors. TPP and TPR thermocouples, thermal resistance, temperature sensors, strain gauges, pressure sensors. The installation wires have fluoroplastic insulation. In some generator lamps, in printed circuit boards with radioelements.
Much more gold is in Soviet computers. To achieve high performance, it was necessary to use a lot of precious metal. Most of these machines have been scrapped and replaced with modern and powerful ones, but such equipment is still found today and a decent amount of gold can be obtained from it.
The easiest way to extract gold is from this technique. However, non-working equipment can be handed over to special collection points, which themselves sell it at their discretion and make a profit.
Among such equipment there may be a working one, but it is very expensive if offered to collectors.
Before proceeding directly to gold extraction, it is necessary to disassemble the device.
How much gold is contained in old type processors?
If you are lucky enough to get your hands on a collection of old-style processors, you can say that this is a real gold mine.
Thus, ten AMD-type processors with a brown case contain a whole gram of precious metal. And in Soviet processors, especially for military use, the cost is several grams of gold in one processor. According to the passport, the old Elbrus-2 computer contained more than three kg of gold.
In what parts can you find gold?
Microcircuits. In them, gold is present in the form of gold-plated leads pressed into plastic or ceramic cases. The mass of gold leads is one third of the mass of the microcircuit. The gold content can vary from one to five percent.
Radio tubes
In them, gold is deposited on a grid located very close to the cathode. This is necessary so that the grid does not become a source of electrons.
Transistors
Gold is placed under conductors and crystals.
Don’t rush to throw away your old equipment - many of its parts contain gold.
Capacitors
Gold-bearing capacitors were used in military radio stations and generators. One capacitor measures up to forty centimeters in height and up to twenty centimeters in width. Such a capacitor contains up to seven grams of gold.
Resistors
Semiconductors, diodes, stabilizers, optocouplers, thyristors.
Connectors
Most older connectors can be gold plated.
Gold extraction process
Gold can be extracted from various parts in two ways: chemically and electrolysis. Naturally, you should not act at random and you need to know in advance which specific boards contain precious gold.
One of the most common methods of extracting gold from old parts is the etching method. It is based on the chemical inertness of gold. How to use this property to extract gold from electronic circuit boards? The reagent required is aqua regia.
This reagent can be easily prepared at home. Aqua regia consists of one part concentrated nitric acid and three parts concentrated hydrochloric acid. The resulting liquid is yellowish-orange in color and has a strong odor of chlorine and nitrogen dioxide. The solution does not acquire its characteristic color immediately, but after standing for a while.
This is what should happen in the end.
Why does gold have to react with such a solution? When nitric and hydrochloric acids interact, many associates and radicals are released. Aqua regia must be prepared immediately before use, otherwise it will soon become unusable. When etching, all metals except gold are eaten away. Before etching, you need to make sure that all gold-plated elements stand separately from non-gold plated ones. The contacts can be pulled out from the connectors, and the remaining caps can be carefully removed.
The powder and foil obtained by pickling are dried on newspaper and carefully weighed. How to extract gold from microcircuit powder? It must be melted in a crucible with the addition of white powder (sodium tetraborate). When processing gold this way, about 10 percent is lost. It is impossible to make money on it, because in Russia the sale of gold without assay is prohibited. However, purely for yourself, you can try to experiment and get a very small bar of gold.
Sometimes, by etching you can get white gold. In the jewelry industry, white gold is highly valued and is used in many types of jewelry, including setting precious stones. includes either nickel, palladium or platinum. The most expensive type of white gold contains platinum. It is one of the most expensive metals because the white gold alloy costs more than the yellow metal itself. There are also impurities that can produce green gold. Jewelers value it much less, since green gold has low strength characteristics, but the beautiful color compensates for this small drawback.
The video above can tell you how to extract gold from old electronics. Before you start searching for precious metal in electronic devices, you should understand that without knowledge and patience nothing will work. Even if you extract a certain amount of the precious metal, you will not be able to make a profit from it - any gold mining without a license is prohibited. Therefore, if the earner follows curiosity and interesting experience, it is quite possible to try. If you are driven by a desire to earn money, you should first read the criminal code of the Russian Federation.
Mobile devices contain huge reserves of valuable raw materials. CHIP myth hunter Martin Jaeger took a cell phone apart and got to the bottom of things.
Myth
Like any other electronic device, a mobile phone contains a variety of valuable metals, including silver and gold. Before throwing away your old device, it makes sense to remove them.
Is it true
Almost all electronics contain ceramics, precious metals and rare earth chemical elements. Of course, their number in such a small device as a mobile phone is negligible. The largest specific gravity is copper: in some cases up to 15 g can be extracted. On average, mobile phones contain about 8.5 g of copper. The amount of a transition metal called cobalt or the widespread iron is not so large - about 3 g. And finally, the most interesting thing is the noble metals. Very little can be extracted from a mobile phone: about 0.25 g of silver, which is found in circuit boards and contacts, and an average of about 0.024 g of gold.
These 24 milligrams of Gold are distributed over all contacts and conductive paths. It would seem that this is very little, but at the current price of this metal (about 1,700 rubles per gram as of October 2012), 40 rubles worth of gold “disappears” in every old, unused device.
The matter is not limited to this: each mobile phone on average contains expensive raw materials worth more than 80 rubles. In the figure at the end of the article you can see which metals and in what quantities are present in these devices.
Thus, there are precious elements in old “mobile phones”, and this is not a myth. However, it must be taken into account that the cost of reverse galvanization, by which gold is separated from other substances, is very high. For the disposal of electronic devices, there are special recycling points where valuable metals are extracted, and most importantly, the toxic substances contained in them are neutralized.
Most people have various computer gadgets at home that are out of order or lying idle. These parts include hard drives, mobile phones, and processors. But in addition to simply throwing away the device, you can try to experiment and extract gold from the available parts. Yes, yes, how much gold is in a computer processor - no one knows for sure, of course you can’t get rich from it, but for fun and for the sake of experiment you can try.
The fact is that computer and other parts actually contain gold. This is mostly old technology, but new computers and phones also contain gold, albeit in smaller quantities. Gold is also used in televisions, refrigerators, and tape recorders due to its good thermal and electrical conductivity properties.
Are there precious metals in computers?
If we roughly calculate the weight of all previously mined (legally) gold, the figure will be impressive - 189,000 tons. And about 10% of this weight comes from electrical engineering.
However, if you disassemble a modern computer into its component parts and find out in detail what is valuable, in addition to information, is inside, the results will be disappointing: all the “gold-bearing” parts of the computer in total contain no more than thirty milligrams of gold. But the parts of the ancient mastodon - a computer from the early nineties - contained up to 3 grams of precious metal.
So does it make sense to mine gold from computer technology? If you rush to take your gaming computer apart in search of gold, the total amount mined will not exceed hundreds of rubles. But if you have your own computer workshop, and a pile of non-working microcircuits has accumulated under the table, you shouldn’t throw them away.
How much gold is stored in equipment?
Knowledgeable people claim that three full-fledged system blocks contain as much gold as a hundredweight of rock from the mine. This is not so much, so you shouldn’t disassemble your work computer, because the cost of even one motherboard in working condition is disproportionately higher than how much gold is contained in a modern and technologically advanced motherboard.
If you have bins at home full of non-working equipment, you can extract some gold from it for a couple of dollars. It all depends on the type of equipment and its quantity. Some gold seekers report that 30 or more grams of gold have been recovered from some pieces.
To mine gold, you will need simple, readily available chemicals - hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide. After purchasing them, you can mine gold.
It is unlikely that you will be able to purchase a lot of hydrochloric acid, but you can order it on the Internet. True, in most cases it is possible to deliver only large quantities (from 5 liters), but such pleasure will cost about 2 euros per liter. However, the sale of hydrochloric acid is now limited because it has harmful fumes.
Jewelers began to use citric acid to bleach gold as a substitute for hydrochloric acid, because it is harmless and costs slightly less. Hydrogen peroxide can be purchased at a pharmacy, preferably several bottles at a time.
Let's start mining
To extract gold (except for acids) we will need:
- Glass jar;
- Rubberized gloves;
- Respirator;
- Safety glasses;
- Measuring plastic or glass cup;
- Plastic stick for stirring.
First, let’s mix a mixture of our ingredients, but don’t be lazy to read additional literature on chemistry, because an incorrectly prepared cocktail of peroxide and hydrochloric acid can have a sad effect.
We put on a respirator, goggles and gloves; a rubber apron, a mask, or, better yet, specialized clothing for chemists would be very useful. It is strongly recommended to prepare the mixture in an open, ventilated area.
When we open a bottle of acid, smoke that is very harmful to humans will come out of it as a result of its connection with air. That is why work must be carried out in open areas in compliance with safety measures.
Acid and peroxide are mixed in proportions of 2 to 1 (two parts acid and one part peroxide). It is very important to pour the acid into the hydrogen peroxide; if you do this procedure the other way around, the reaction may lead to the release of liquid.
The components must be poured very slowly so that the solution mixes evenly. The resulting mixture should then be stirred with a plastic stick. The resulting solution should be greenish in color.
What you need to extract gold from your computer at home
For refining, we first need good protective equipment: we should protect our hands, eyes, respiratory organs, and wear a thick apron. It is also a good idea to have a powerful hood or conduct chemical reactions in a well-ventilated area or in the open air.
Materials and reagents:
- pliers;
- screwdrivers;
- gas or gasoline burner;
- precision scales;
- filters;
- beaker made of heat-resistant glass;
- concentrated hydrochloric and nitric acids;
- hydrogen peroxide;
- methyl alcohol;
- electric stove.
What details should you look for gold in?
The bulk of the gold is stored in the central processor, video card, contacts and centipedes. As an example, let's consider gold mining from interfaces as the simplest.
We take all our boards, whether they work or not, it doesn’t matter. It is advisable that they are not magnetic, this will make it easier to remove their parts. Potentially gold-containing parts (tracks, contacts, etc.) are thrown into a mixture of acid and peroxide, after which we wait a week until the gold settles and then we will know exactly how much gold in the computer can be extracted for use. The solution is stirred a little every day.
Let us repeat that you should not rely on mountains of gold; at the bottom there will be several grains of precious metal. As it settles, the liquid darkens, the circuit boards slide off, and you can see possible grains of gold in the solution.
How to get gold from a mobile phone?
The technology is quite simple, but it is worth observing safety requirements. When working with concentrated hydrochloric acid, you only need to wear a mask and goggles, and you must wear special gloves on your hands.
You will need to pour hydrochloric acid into a glass container and fill it with broken microcircuits from mobile phones. The cases do not need to be thrown into hydrochloric acid, since there is nothing valuable in them!
Sell gold
After a week of chemical fermentation, there will be nothing left of the microcircuits, and grains of gold will remain at the bottom.
Do not forget that all components of a mobile phone - iron, copper, tin, even silver - react with strong hydrochloric acid. Only gold and palladium do not participate in the reaction and precipitate. ◄ Back to news
A week later
So, a little over a week has passed and we can finish the gold mining experiment. If the parts were selected correctly, then at the bottom of the jar you will notice fragments of gold extracted from these parts. But almost no one has checked how much gold can be mined by digging through a mobile phone. But if a small amount comes out of a whole computer, then a couple of grains can come out of a much smaller phone.
Now you need to “pull” the gold out of the acid. The easiest way is to use a paper filter (for filtering coffee). But you can also use a towel as a filter, but you should not clean gold grains from the fabric with your hands; you can disrupt the already soft structure of the metal, turning it into dust. The best solution would be to wash off the gold with vodka into a test tube or sealed container.
In connection with the spread of such methods of mining the yellow metal, some gold miners want to know how much gold is in mobile SIM cards. It all depends on the specific sample, but in general the amount of gold does not exceed a few hundredths of a gram, although some craftsmen write that they managed to extract 0.5 grams of metal from a SIM card.
We extracted gold from computer circuit boards, but it is worth remembering that each part has its own specific preparation before extraction and the composition of the solution, so if you are not a chemist, then work with gold extraction very carefully, observing all safety measures.
Why do you need to recycle computer equipment?
Mining gold at home is an exciting process. And it is quite possible to use it for personal purposes. But it will not be possible to sell the yellow metal extracted in this way - it is illegal. It is much more rational to dispose of broken equipment in accordance with the law - take it to a collection point for household appliances.
Plastic is a real scourge of modern society. And one battery pollutes 20 cubic meters of land and water with heavy metals. If each of us takes care of the environment, we can save the planet for our children.
