In his quest to get gold, man knows no bounds. It is well known that Russian and Soviet-made radio components contain gold. There are different answers to the question: how to extract it? Not all methods can be used at home.
It's in trash like this that you can find gold.
Which way to obtain gold should you choose to solve this problem? Only those whose use requires aqua regia. How to get gold from radio components using it? First, you need to correctly select the radio components themselves, from which it is possible to extract gold.
Where is the gold?
Gold refining is a rather labor-intensive, painstaking process, which is based on the refining of the metal. To extract this precious metal from other substances and components, it is necessary to separate it from impurities.
Extracting gold from Soviet-made radio components will bring a greater amount of precious metal than if the operation were performed on Russian parts. Foreign radio components contain the least amount of this precious raw material. Obtaining precious metal from them can give zero results.
How much gold is in Soviet radio tubes?
Experts claim that radio tubes containing precious metals were used in any Soviet-made electronics. Therefore, for a long time there was no shortage of them on the market. But many experts were well aware of the presence of “gold” radio tubes, which contained an increased amount of gold, and they were one of the first to disappear from the market. They can still be found in old military electronics, but in much smaller quantities than before.
For example, in a powerful GI-19B generator triode there was a noticeable amount of gold - 319 grams per thousand pieces. But the GMI-19B pulse modulator triode can really be called a “gold radio tube”, since from a thousand pieces you can get as much as 16 kilograms of gold.
These data seem overestimated, but you should believe them, since this type of generator lamps was not used in consumer electronics, but in special equipment that was supposed to work for many years without failures.
Only gold on the copper contacts of the triode can enable it to function for many years without interference. That is why, as experts point out, precious metals in radio tubes could be found everywhere, but only in generator triodes the amount of gold and other precious metals is simply off scale. ◄ Back to news
Do-it-yourself gold extraction
A common mistake made by many “at-home gold miners” is that they try to extract gold from yellow parts. They just may not contain noble metal. This metal is found in microcircuits, transistors, diodes, relays, and glass electrodes. It is possible to extract this valuable raw material from waveguides, clocks, and PCB switches. Before mining gold, it is necessary to calculate the expected amount of reagents. This will need to be done based on the weight of the radio components, the percentage of gold and the possible volume of precious metal at the output.
Gold plated watch from Soviet times
Extraction of this precious metal is possible not only from radio components. In Soviet times, metal watch cases were also covered with a thin layer of gold. The method for obtaining the precious metal here will be the same as for extracting gold from radio components. Once items containing this valuable metal are collected, they should be cleaned of dust and dirt. Mining gold at home is not only a labor-intensive, but also a dangerous process.
You will have to work with chemicals that pose a threat to life and health. It is necessary to know about this and take measures to protect the body from chemical poisoning and burns.
Why was it necessary to add gold in the manufacture of radio tubes?
Many people nowadays are not at all familiar with radio tubes, although they were quite actively used in the production of televisions with ray tubes about fifty years ago, and radio tubes were also used in various equipment. For many years, radio tubes containing precious metals served as transistors.
Sell lamps
But as soon as they began to be mass-produced in the mid-60s, the number of radio tubes decreased sharply. But why do you need to use huge amounts of silver and gold in the manufacture of mass-produced radio components? Wasn't there such a big need? Actually yes. If precious metals were not used, the service life of any radio tube would be low. Copper contacts are coated with gold or silver, of which there are a huge number in radio tubes. If you do not protect the contacts from oxidation, their service life will be extremely short.
Do not forget that each radio tube operates at a high operating temperature, so the oxidation process of copper contacts is extremely active and cannot be done without protection in the form of a silver film.
But why was gold used in radio tubes? Often only silver was used in Soviet radio components - it was much cheaper than gold at all times. But radio tubes are one of the few radio components in the production of which the purest gold was used. Only pure gold without impurities can best protect copper contacts from corrosion. It is worth noting that precious metals in radio components have always been used to protect copper contacts, but only gold in its pure form can increase the service life of copper contacts, and therefore radio components, for the maximum period.
During the heyday of radio tubes, they did not spare gold. And the technologies for applying precious metals to copper contacts were imperfect in those distant times, so radio tubes from the production period from the 50s to the early 70s contained a lot of precious metals. It is always worth understanding that radio components containing precious metals were used in both special-purpose electronics and household electrical appliances.
Therefore, radio tubes have been in tremendous demand for decades. But in our time, it is extremely difficult to find Soviet generator tubes, which were produced until the end of the 80s, and ordinary radio tubes, which were used in televisions.
Sell lamps
But the hunt for Soviet radio tubes continues actively today, because a large number of generator radio tubes were produced, which contained an excessive amount of gold. Great efforts invested in the search for Soviet-made radio tubes are always compensated by serious profits from the amount of gold that was present in almost all Soviet-made tubes.
What is aqua regia used for?
A person ignorant of chemistry may think that we are talking about alcohol. Extracting gold and purifying it from impurities using alcohol-containing substances is impossible. A mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid is what aqua regia is. How to get it? It is simple and will not be difficult for a person who has completed a school chemistry course. Concentrated nitric and hydrochloric acids are mixed. The percentage of the latter should be 40%. That is, per liter of nitric acid you will need approximately 250-300 ml of hydrochloric acid.
Regardless of whether gold mining is carried out at home or in the laboratory, you must take care of the appropriate containers for chemical reagents. Extraction of gold and preparation of all components necessary for this procedure are carried out only in glass containers.
If acids are mixed, the container itself is placed in ice water. No haste or carelessness when performing such a procedure is acceptable. The resulting mixture of acids is slowly and thoroughly mixed - and the aqua regia is ready. It is a very dangerous and unique reagent because it is capable of dissolving almost any objects and substances. It is believed that gold is not able to dissolve any drug on Earth. Royal vodka is an exception.
Mixture of acids - aqua regia
In order to proceed to the next stage of the gold mining operation, the mixture must be heated. When its temperature is 60-70° C, the parts are carefully immersed in aqua regia. You can, of course, not clean them of dust and dirt, but then the solution of nitric and hydrochloric acids will quickly become contaminated.
The same thing will happen if plastic elements of equipment are loaded together with radio components.
About the dangers and results of chemical processes
Having lowered the radio components to where the gold is located (in aqua regia), you must be patient, since the dissolution reaction lasts on average 6 hours and is considered terminated when the components are completely dissolved. Windows and doors to the house should under no circumstances be closed at this time. When gold and other metals are dissolved in aqua regia, an intensive process of nitric oxide release occurs.
Outwardly, it looks like yellow smoke. This “special effect” is very dangerous for the human body. One breath of nitric oxide and a person loses consciousness. To this day, it is not uncommon for people who turn a house into a gold extraction laboratory to die. No doctors have time to help them: death occurs in a matter of minutes.
As soon as the gold has dissolved in aqua regia, we must move on to the next stage of “mining at home.” The gold sediment itself is not noticeable in the glassware, but its molecules, if the precious metal was indeed in the details, are already there. Hydrazine will help perform the next chemical operation. Hydrazine can be in powdered or liquid form.
Working with acids is very dangerous
In powder form, it is white in color and does not have any odor. When dissolved, on the contrary, it becomes colorless and smells extremely unpleasant. If hydrazine is purchased in powder form, then no more than 300 grams are required to extract gold.
200 grams of hydrazine powder are usually dissolved in one liter of water. This is a fairly concentrated solution; it must be added to a container with aqua regia, where the dissolved gold is located.
What should the fineness of gold be?
As soon as flakes of brown metal become noticeable in the glass container, it can be said that the dissolved radio components contained real gold. It just looks like rust. Why? Because it is of low quality. Low-grade gold is collected using filter paper and the precious metal is re-purified. To do this, you need to repeat the operation several times, immersing the gold in aqua regia. Again, you will have to wait for hours for it to dissolve, heat the aqua regia and add a hydrazine solution to it. However, the result will exceed all expectations: after 3-4 times of purification, the gold from radio components reaches 999 fineness. Is it possible to purchase jewelry with such a hallmark in a store? The collected flakes of purified gold are melted over a burner, then it cools and is ready for further use.
Gold was often used in Soviet electronics along with a copper solution, which somewhat complicates the procedure for its extraction. If there is a lot of copper, you can immediately recognize this by the color of the aqua regia: it will turn green. The operation of heating the acid will have to be repeated several times to reduce the copper content in the solution. If gold is to be extracted from a large number of radio components, they are not immersed all at once in a solution of nitric and hydrochloric acids, but are carried out “in portions”.
You need to know: not only hydrazine is used for gold refining. Table salt, which is added to the solution, helps remove residual nitric acid. Hydroquinone plays a similar role, because it also helps reduce losses of gold during its extraction.
Which transistors are most rich in gold?
Of course, when we talk about the fact that there was gold in almost every transistor produced in the Soviet Union, we should not forget that for each transistor there was an extremely small amount of the yellow metal. On average, there was about 1 gram of gold per thousand transistors. This is not much, but it lasts long enough to get rich, since there are still a lot of Soviet-made transistors left, and the process of obtaining pure gold from them is an extremely simple process.
It is always worth understanding that transistors with precious metals could only be found in computers and other electronics that required some kind of computing power. Not all transistors had the same amount of precious metal. For example, in the 2T306B brand there were 12 grams per thousand pieces.
And in Soviet-made 2T318B transistors there was only 0.82 grams of gold per thousand units.
The record is broken by the brand of bipolar transistors KT812B, which contained more than 30 grams of pure gold per thousand pieces. Indeed, many people have made great money over the years using transistors, originally from the USSR, and continue to get rich. ◄ Back to news
