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Rosatom will extract precious metals from printed circuit boards


Gold-containing components for disposal. Source: Step-by-Step DIY Instruction “Extracting Gold from Old Electronics”

ROSATOM intends to recycle electronic devices - mobile phones, laptops, TVs, the boards of which contain rare earth metals. The corresponding application was published on March 16, 2018 on the website of the public procurement corporation. Purchase page in the Electronic Trading Center (Competition No. 986774).

Subject of procurement: “Supply, installation, commissioning of a processing line for processing components of electronic circuit boards to the Okhtz JSC of VNIIHT JSC at 11 Likhoborskaya Embankment, Moscow.” Maximum contract price: 26.47 million rubles. Deliveries scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2019.
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The concentration of precious metals (gold, silver, palladium) in printed circuit boards is ten times higher than their concentration in the ore mined.

It is no secret that gold can be extracted from old electronic devices at home . Precious and rare metals are in the details of almost any broken devices: old laptops, telephones, cameras, printers, scanners and other unnecessary junk work. Each electronic card contains a few milligrams of platinum, gold, silver and copper, which can, if desired, be retrieved from electronic debris. As informed experts know, the older the gadget - the more valuable materials it contains. For example, especially a lot of it in the Soviet electronics.

For example, if you want to isolate gold, the extraction process is fairly simple. First you need to sort the components and with the help of a magnet to remove the gold-plated steel, which requires a separate process. Then, de-dusted gold-containing boards are lowered for one week in a solution of hydrochloric acid (two parts) and hydrogen peroxide (one part). Every day, a pot of acid should be lightly stirred. After a week, the solution darkens and floating flakes of exfoliated gold become visible. They must be passed through a coffee filter and rinsed with methyl alcohol. Next you need to fuse the scales in one ingot. The melting point of gold is 1063 ° C. If gold is treated with sodium tetraborate (borax), the melting point decreases. Then the mixture of borax and gold is melted. At the exit we get a small gold bar.


The ingot obtained from the parts on KDPV. Source: step-by-step instructions "We extract gold from old electronics"

To get such an ingot weighing just over 30 grams ($ 1000-1500), you need to process approximately 200-300 kilograms of motherboards and other components. If done alone, the collection and processing will take about three months. For a student or a schoolboy, a normal hobby is during the holidays, when computers are busy mining.

Something similar, only on an industrial scale, is going to be carried out by Rosatom. The organizer of the competition is the Leading Scientific Research Institute of Chemical Technology Joint Stock Company (VNIIKhT). A line for the processing of electronic circuit board components will be installed at the experimental chemical and technological plant of this company to produce a concentrate containing precious metals and other secondary products.

According to the terms of reference, the processing line for processing components of electronic boards to produce a concentrate containing precious metals and other secondary products should include the following equipment (or equivalent):


The metal melting induction electric furnace FIM 150 and other equipment is indicated in the diagram.

Technological line for the processing of electronic scrap (clickable)


Thanks to the published documents with the exact indication of all stages of the production cycle, you can organize the same round-the-clock processing line in your production. Number of staff: 30 people (1 shift), 32 people (2 shift) and 28 people (3 shift).

Rosatom intends to dispose of only electronic boards. They constitute only about 3% of the total of the total amount of this type of waste, but due to the high concentration of toxic substances are very dangerous, writes RIA Novosti. The presence of a variety of highly toxic materials and heavy metals makes dumping at a landfill or simply burning unacceptable methods for managing such wastes. Therefore, the best way to dispose of electronic waste is their recycling.

The Rosatom line is designed to process 5,000 tons of electronic waste per year. At the exit it is planned to receive the following amount of raw materials for export to other enterprises:

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/374357/

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