Even with its high price, though, it's commonly used in the manufacturing of electronics. From desktop and laptop computers to smartphones, TVs, video game consoles and more, countless electronics contain gold. In fact, most electronics contain at least some amount of this precious metal.
Gold is used as an industrial metal in a broad range of applications, but demand is driven by the electronics sector which accounts for ~80% of gold used in technology.
While extracting gold from electronics is not without its challenges, it can be worth it for individuals looking to recover valuable metals and reduce e-waste. However, following safety precautions and using personal protective equipment when handling hazardous chemicals is essential.
Among all home devices, computers and televisions typically contain the most gold. Gold is also found in the circuit boards of earlier generations of cameras, radios, and media players. Traces of gold can be found in other electronics like game consoles, tablets, and phones.
Of the typical 3,000 metric tonnes of newly mined gold ore per year, some 300 tonnes of gold goes into producing high-end electronic devices (some may too come from another 1,000 tonnes annually recycled gold).
Gold is used in the manufacturing of SIM cards due to it being a very excellent conductor of electricity. Other than this, it is also very durable. However, each SIM card contains very little amount of gold, and you need thousands of SIM cards to be able to extract a few grams of gold.
Circuits in modern CPUs and Laptops weigh around 100 gm so you can expect to extract 0.150 grams of Gold. Additionally, the wires and connector pins have gold which will amount to another 0.070 gram and another 0.090 grams for gold plated contacts.
The processors and connectors in computers, tablets, and smartphones use gold. You can also find gold in televisions, gaming consoles, printers, or essentially anything electronic.
Should you extract gold from electronics? Recovering gold from junk electronics, also called urban mining, may be profitable if you can amass large volumes of electronic waste (e-waste), particularly computer parts. It may not be worth the ordeal to extract gold from a small pile of junk hardware.
All hard drives contain precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum and Palladium. While they contain precious metals in very little amount, they still have a value.
TVs usually contain a very small amount of gold that might amount to about $1.00 or less in value. It can be quite a lot of work to get to the gold inside your TV as well.
Melting and processing of parts from several devices yield up to 1–2 g of gold.
Electronics aren't made entirely of gold. Rather, the precious and expensive metal is used for specific components such as connectors, switch contacts, relay contacts and wires.
“A ton of electronics scrap should contain about 12 ounces of gold . . .”
What to do: Hold the magnet up to the gold. If it's real gold it will not stick to the magnet. (Fun fact: Real gold is not magnetic.) Fake gold, on the other hand, will stick to the magnet.
Gold is an important element in the design of printed circuit boards, and looking closely at most PCBs will reveal that the 'fingers' on the board include metal contacts fabricated from gold.
Magann: A PC circuit board, where the gold is, weighs about a pound. If you had a ton of those boards, you should have 5 troy ounces of gold.
Gold-bearing circuit boards are increasingly used in appliances like microwaves, air conditioners, refrigerators, and kitchen stoves. A good rule of thumb is: The more technological features that an appliance has, the more likely it is to contain small amounts of gold.
Gold is usually found embedded in quartz veins, or placer stream gravel. It is mined in South Africa, the USA (Nevada, Alaska), Russia, Australia and Canada.
RD Ram chips? about 5 grams gold per 1 kg. Average mix 3.32 g per kg.