Unlocking the Treasure: A Step-by-Step Guide on Recovering Gold from Cellphones

In today's world, electronic waste is a significant environmental threat, and one of the significant contributors to this waste is cell phones. Cell phones contain several precious metals, including gold, which can be extracted and sold for a substantial amount of money. In this article, we will discuss in detail how to recover gold from cell phones step-by-step.

Process:

Step 1: Disassembling the Cellphone

The first step in recovering gold from cell phones is to disassemble them. To do this, remove all the screws from the cellphone and separate the printed circuit board (PCB), IC chip, and gold-plated pin connector charging port.

Step 2: Separating Base Metals

Next, use a hot air gun or hot induction plate to separate the base metals from the PCB board and the IC chip. The IC chip and gold-plated pin connector charging port should be separated from the PCB board.

Step 3: Burning the IC Chips

After the IC chips are separated, they should be burned to ashes using the ashing method. This will leave the gold wires inside the IC chips, which can be collected easily.

Step 4: Crushing the IC Chips

Before collecting the gold wires from the IC chips, they need to be crushed into small pieces using a wooden or iron mortar or grinder. This will make it easier to wash the ashes and collect the gold wires inside.

Step 5: Collecting the Gold Wires

After the ashes have been washed, the gold wires can be collected using a magnet.

Step 6: Dissolving the Gold

Next, the gold wire collected from the IC chip, gold-plated pins, and cellphone gold-plated PCB should be put in a bucket with aqua regia. This will dissolve all the gold in the solution.

Step 7: Precipitating the Gold

To precipitate the gold from the aqua regia solution, it should be filtered and neutralized with urea. Next, sodium metabisulphite should be mixed with water and poured into the solution. This will cause the gold to precipitate quickly from the aqua regia and accumulate at the bottom of the bucket.

Step 8: Collecting the Gold Sediment

The next day, the gold sediment should be collected on medium-speed filter paper and purified again using aqua regia.

Step 9: Melting the Gold

Finally, the purified gold should be melted down, and 24k gold will be collected.

Conclusion:

Recovering gold from cell phones can be a profitable venture and also helps in reducing electronic waste. The process can be lengthy and requires several steps, but with proper precautions, anyone can recover gold from cell phones.