How much precious metal in a cell phone

A ribbon of molten gold flows into a mould where it sizzles and spits fire for a few minutes before solidifying into a dull yellow slab, on its way to becoming a 3 kg 6. Wearing plastic goggles to protect his eyes while he works, Arai said he was awestruck when he started his job two years ago. The scrap electronics and other industrial waste is first sorted and dismantled by hand.

It is then immersed in chemicals to dissolve unwanted materials and the remaining metal is refined. Eco-System, established 20 years ago near Tokyo, typically produces about kg lb of gold bars a month with a Eco-System also recovers metals from old memory chips, cables and even black ink which contain silver and palladium. Each year, an estimate of about 20million to 50 million tons of electronic waste is generated globally. Fortunately, trade-ins have come to try and control this problem of electronic waste.

Trade-ins recycle precious metals found in electronic waste. If you intend to conduct large-scale gold recovery from electronics, then yes, it is worth it. The amount of gold you can find on either a computer, laptop, or cellphone, depends on the size and model of the specific gadget. Extracting gold from e-waste is tricky, especially since it involves the use of hazardous chemicals.

Other techniques you can employ to extract gold from electronics include: Using the reverse electroplating method or using a weak acid like vinegar. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. So, it begs the question: how much gold is in a computer, laptop, or cellphone? Something Borrowed When most people think of electricity conduction, they think of copper, probably because it is the most common electrical conductor. Circuit boards contain the majority of the gold in any computer.

However, different computer models have different amounts of gold in them. What to use then in a bid to achieve all these demands? Edge connectors, which mount microprocessors and memory chips to the motherboard, contain gold. Furthermore, all plug-and-socket connectors that connect cables contain gold. Quantity Gold in a smartphone The amount of gold in a smartphone depends entirely on its size and model.

Quantity of Gold in a laptop Different laptops have different amounts of gold-laced on them. This property is well supported by the fact that gold does not mix well with oxygen. The average smartphone contains small amounts of gold, silver, platinum and palladium. But mining these metals from ore can be arduous; it takes a tonne of ore to get 1g of gold. Stripping them from existing mobile phones is not easy but can yield a surprising amount of material.

Copper and aluminium, typically lower value than precious metals, can also be found in your smartphone, in the casing or the circuit board. There is more than just precious metals in your smartphone. Rare earth elements can be found in everything from the glass display to magnets in speakers. Such elements can include yttrium and gadolinium in the display; neodymium which is often used in headphones or speakers and microphones; lanthanum to make the tiny lens in the camera that much better; and praseodymium, also for headphones.

Then you have to look at the battery that powers it. Smartphones predominantly have lithium ion batteries, which require lithium. Cobalt is also used in smartphone batteries. There is a link between cobalt mining and child labour, and the region is plagued by corruption and conflict. Around 10, phones weigh one ton. In , his company recycled ounces of gold from cellphones, the equivalent of about Olympic gold medals.

An interesting side-note is that when the average cell is dumped abroad, a lot of the gold and precious metals are lost. Vice adds that in , tons of gold "went into electronic and electrical products, according to Solving the E-waste Problem StEP , an international initiative hosted by United Nations University.