Worthless Gold (procs)

[joel96]

If this information that I found it true.......

"In general, a ton of circuit boards yields approximately 10 ounces of gold. The average PC contains about 1 gram of gold. Other metals recovered from computers are platinum, silver, copper, steel, and aluminum"

I would say that bulk is the only way to go. If one ounce of gold is worth about $1,000.00 bucks that means out of a ton of ciruit boards you would get $10,000.

You mean like 900 kg? In that case it would be about $0.09 a kg. http://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9680 According to this thread, the value varies from $27 per kg to $35 per kg, to an estimated $0.15 per CPU. The thread was written in 2010, so they were talking about the diluted and impure gold. Keep in mind gold at the time of this writing is going for around $55,000 a kg, or about $55 a gram, but that's assuming some carat or purity or whatever that I don't know of. Assuming it is the minimum amount possible per gram, like .1%, and assuming the pins weigh a total of .01g it would be about $0.55 for my CPU's pins. Of course, it could be heavier and purer than that, but it's unlikely to be much higher than that, especially considering what gold plated USB cables go for.

I wonder if I could just hack off the pins without bothering with the whole extraction process and take the little sandwich bag full of pins to the local pawn shop. I've got an AMD 3200+ that I can net about $7 from, and based on the above prices it would be easier and more profitable to sell it as a working CPU.

My exact question is this: is the math right?

 

[compulsivebuilder]

The pins aren't gold, so your mathematics is wrong.

Most of the gold is inside the package, wiring from the silicon to the pads that connect to the pins.

 

[IH8U]

Most pins are Plated gold (I think tom's already did this a few years back), and found that the effort is not worth the miniscule gain. Especially since getting to the precious metals in components (PCB's, chips, ect...) is dangerous, and exposes you to numerous toxins (that can cause: cancer, birth defects, hair loss, skin lesions, respiratory issues, ect...).

 

[FinneousPJ]

Yes, making the components solid gold would be pointless. Metals conduct electricity on the surface.

 

[arunphilip]

The Register had this nice article on the economics of recycling PC components: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/02/recycling_your_high_tech_gear/

Its worth a read.