Isolating precious metals from recycled materials

metameta Regular
edited July 2010 in Tech & Games
I was just watching modern marvels on the history channel and saw that a company was isolating platinum from from recycled materials. They basically got a shit ton of raw material and put it into a vat of sulfuric acid. This left spongy platinum and other impurities at the bottom of the vat. The guy running the equipment said that the amount of platinum at the bottom of the vat was worth about 3 million dollars.

Next they used aqua regia (hydrochloric acid and nitric acid) to remove the impurities. They melted the raw platinum down and cast them into bars and sold them for $1200 an ounce. I was wondering if this process could be done on a smaller scale to build extra income. What kind of recycled materials contain platinum?

Comments

  • KatzenklavierKatzenklavier Regular
    edited July 2010
    Not many things. Even a catalytic converter only has about a gram of platinum group metals, let alone electronics. Most circuit boards nowadays don't even have gold worth harvesting.
  • BungHoleBungHole Regular
    edited July 2010
    Not many things. Even a catalytic converter only has about a gram of platinum group metals, let alone electronics. Most circuit boards nowadays don't even have gold worth harvesting.

    Not to mention plenty of mercury, but that's probably not your thing, and actually just a hazard.....
  • KatzenklavierKatzenklavier Regular
    edited July 2010
    BungHole wrote: »
    Not to mention plenty of mercury, but that's probably not your thing, and actually just a hazard.....

    What do you mean not my thing?
    Behold, my mercury collection. 7.5lbs next to a dime. It's quite awesome to hold 1.5 cups of Hg in your hands.
    2utrgpj.jpg

    Btw, electronic devices contain nearly no Hg nowadays.
  • BungHoleBungHole Regular
    edited July 2010
    What do you mean not my thing?
    Behold, my mercury collection. 7.5lbs next to a dime. It's quite awesome to hold 1.5 cups of Hg in your hands.
    2utrgpj.jpg

    Btw, electronic devices contain nearly no Hg nowadays.

    :eek::eek::eek:

    Well, that was more of a generalized statement, although I didn't realize we had an avid collector of metallic mercury on our hands. That's enough mercury to amalgamate every plane in the U.S. Air Force and turn it to dust.....

    All I has is about half a milliliter from collecting antique thermometers.:(

    As for it not being in newer electronics, I'm sure that's true, but scrapping obsolete electronics might have you running into a lot of electronics that were around before the transition away from mercury was made.
  • KatzenklavierKatzenklavier Regular
    edited July 2010
    The only use for Hg in old electronics was in tilt switches, and mercury contact relays. Other than that, there isn't much Hg at all. :D:(

    BTW, mercury tilt switches and Hg wetted relays were the IMO the best switches ever invented. They have nearly infinite lifetime and zero switchbounce.

    Before i forget, there was one use for Hg that was amazing; the mercury arc rectifier. These are 3 phase or 6 phase rectifiers that were used to rectify power in transmission grids. They were (and are) still used to power all the DC subway systems built by Edison Electric.

    Wiki-Link
  • BungHoleBungHole Regular
    edited July 2010
    The only use for Hg in old electronics was in tilt switches, and mercury contact relays. Other than that, there isn't much Hg at all. :D:(

    BTW, mercury tilt switches and Hg wetted relays were the IMO the best switches ever invented. They have nearly infinite lifetime and zero switchbounce.

    Before i forget, there was one use for Hg that was amazing; the mercury arc rectifier. These are 3 phase or 6 phase rectifiers that were used to rectify power in transmission grids. They were (and are) still used to power all the DC subway systems built by Edison Electric.

    Wiki-Link

    Well, I'm sure he wont be working with lighting or taking apart watch batteries, but weren't the mercury switches quite common in many electronics?

    I think you and I just have a different opinion of what a lot of mercury is...:o

    As for that mercury rectifier, well now I have one more thing to research about involving my recently found interest in electrical engineering.:mad::)

    I've been wanting to bulb a high pressure sodium or mercury vapor lamp, just for the lulz. But I still don't know much about the subject, so I'll have to get back to you on that.....
  • KatzenklavierKatzenklavier Regular
    edited July 2010
    Only in thermostats. That's really the only thing they were used in. That and car alarms. There used to be a sizeable quantity of Hg in batteries, but they were banned long ago. By sizable i mean you could collect a few grams of mercury from a spent AA.
  • BungHoleBungHole Regular
    edited July 2010
    Only in thermostats. That's really the only thing they were used in. That and car alarms. There used to be a sizeable quantity of Hg in batteries, but they were banned long ago. By sizable i mean you could collect a few grams of mercury from a spent AA.
    Wikipedia wrote:
    Mercury switches (including home mercury light switches installed prior to 1970), tilt switches used in old fire detectors, tilt switches in many modern home thermostats, electrodes in some types of electrolysis, batteries (mercury cells), sodium hydroxide and chlorine production, handheld games, catalysts, insecticides and liquid mirror telescopes.
    :confused::confused::confused:

    I mean, it still predominantly focuses on very old light switches and the tilt switches in thermostats, but it even mentions handheld games. Did the game systems have tilt switches in them for controls, or were there other components which contained mercury?

    But I'll be honest, I only assumed there was so much mercury in electronics because of the man who died extracting gold from computers. After looking into it further though, it wasn't actually in the computer parts, he was using it to aid the extraction process.:o
  • KatzenklavierKatzenklavier Regular
    edited July 2010
    No, at least not any handheld game i've ever seen. Some lightswitches in the past, called silent switches, were actually just tilt switches on a lever. Instead of making a loud click as lightswitches used to do, these were silent. Now they found a better way to do it, with a special origami of brass.
    But I'll be honest, I only assumed there was so much mercury in electronics because of the man who died extracting gold from computers. After looking into it further though, it wasn't actually in the computer parts, he was using it to aid the extraction process.

    That's true. He tried to precipitate the gold out of the mercury by BOILING IT :facepalm: Although that works, it's retardedly dangerous.
    You're supposed to pour the lumpy solution in nitric acid. The acid dissolves the Hg leaving gold dust behind. Then you filter the gold dust, and you're left with mercurated [sp?] nitric. Put a lump of copper in the nitric, and you get 99% of your Hg back too! Copper is a loss though.
    BTW, mercury dissolves gold and silver. I put a 1gram lump in that jar and it was pretty odd to see it disappear. I still have to get it out when i find some cheap nitric.

    It's much easier than using aqua regia or [shudders] gold cyanidation.
  • BungHoleBungHole Regular
    edited July 2010
    No, at least not any handheld game i've ever seen. Some lightswitches in the past, called silent switches, were actually just tilt switches on a lever. Instead of making a loud click as lightswitches used to do, these were silent. Now they found a better way to do it, with a special origami of brass.



    That's true. He tried to precipitate the gold out of the mercury by BOILING IT :facepalm: Although that works, it's retardedly dangerous.
    You're supposed to pour the lumpy solution in nitric acid. The acid dissolves the Hg leaving gold dust behind. Then you filter the gold dust, and you're left with mercurated [sp?] nitric. Put a lump of copper in the nitric, and you get 99% of your Hg back too! Copper is a loss though.
    BTW, mercury dissolves gold and silver. I put a 1gram lump in that jar and it was pretty odd to see it disappear. I still have to get it out when i find some cheap nitric.

    It's much easier than using aqua regia or [shudders] gold cyanidation.

    Damn dude, that's gonna be alot of mercury nitrate.....:eek:
  • KatzenklavierKatzenklavier Regular
    edited July 2010
    BungHole wrote: »
    Damn dude, that's gonna be alot of mercury nitrate.....:eek:

    I'd need alot of copper too. Probably not worth all the hassle (and copper) for 1 gram of gold.
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