Jewelry boxes and dresser drawers, where small, easy-to-overlook small pins, forgotten coins, and bits of jewelry can contain gold, silver and platinum. Kitchen drawers and storage areas, where pieces of silver tableware could be intermixed with other items.
✤ Computers and Electronics – These items have circuit boards, which contain gold. You can find circuit boards in all sorts of electronics, including cell phones, laptops, stereo systems, cameras, and more. ✤ Old Appliances – Old or broken appliances may contain valuable metals like silver, gold, and palladium.
Precious metals are used commonly in jewelry, industrial processes, or very often as investment vehicles. The four primary precious metals are gold, silver, platinum, and palladium.
Platinum has often been used in cigarette boxes, lighter cases, cigarette and cigar holders, cigar cutters, and other smoking accessories. Now that smoking is becoming less popular, a number of these items are “washing back” onto the marketplace.
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.
In fact, computer parts contain the most gold. It is possible to recover gold from computer boards; it is also possible to extract gold from motherboards, integrated circuits, contacts, pins and printed circuit boards. And how is gold recovered from a computer?
A television contains copper, quartz, iron, gold, platinum, and silver in its parts. List any other uses you know for these mineral resources.
According to the International Platinum Group Metals Association, in the electronics sector, most palladium is used for multi-layer ceramic (chip) capacitors (MLCC). MLCCs store energy in electronic devices such as broadcasting equipment, mobile telephones, computers, electronic lighting and high voltage circuits.
Palladium is often used in cell phone and laptop components, and it's also found in ceramic capacitors having multiple layers. Due to the metal's high level of conductivity, manufacturers commonly include it in the connector plates of a variety of electronic products.
RHODIUM. While the major use of rhodium (Rh) is in catalytic converters, 11% of production is used in glass-related applications, such as coatings for optic fibres and optical mirrors. Because it is also highly resistant to corrosion, it is used for thermocouple elements and crucibles.
Platinum is used in catalytic converters, laboratory equipment, electrical contacts and electrodes, platinum resistance thermometers, dentistry equipment, and jewelry.
Rhodium is used for several different things, such as automobiles, jewelry, searchlights, electronics and mirrors. By far the most common use is in catalytic converters, which are exhaust emission control devices that look like a small muffler on the outside of a vehicle.
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.
Palladium catalysts: Palladium can be found in automotive catalysts, industrial catalysts, palladium foil catalysts, petroleum refining catalysts.
Palladium was present in most food groups above the LOD of 0.0003 mg/kg with the highest concentrations found in nuts (0.003mg/kg), bread, offal, and fish groups (all 0.002mg/kg).
Mobile phones contain many valuable metals and uncommon earths. An average iPhone contains around 0.034g of gold, 0.34g of silver and 0.015g of palladium. This is in addition to 1000th of a gram of platinum.
Nitric acid can be used to perform a quick test to differentiate between palladium and silver. Palladium won't react to nitric acid, whereas silver will oxidize and turn a light brown color. It's important to remember to always use protective gloves and eyewear when working with any type of acid.
In nature it is found with other platinum group minerals and metals. These characteristics combined with its low electrical resistance makes rhodium commonly used as an electrical contact material for electrical contacts, semiconductor wafers, printed circuit boards (PCBs), and other mission critical components.
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.
Valuable & Precious metals – where they are in Computers:
Platinum – Hard Drives, Circuit board components. Palladium – Hard Drives, Circuit board components (capacitors) Copper – CPU heat sinks, wiring and cables, Printed Circuit Boards, Computer Chips. Nickel – Circuit board components.
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.
Televisions are made of several different materials. Some of the most valuable components of an older CRT monitor are metals. CRT TVs usually contain parts made of copper, gold, iron, steel, and many more, all of which can be refined for the manufacturing of new products.
Motherboards – the biggest circuit boards inside both laptops and desktops – often contain the “mother lode” of gold in used computers. Their edges have gold contacts and connectors where wires slide on. You will also find thin layers of gold applied to motherboards' surfaces.