How To Recover Gold From Computer Scrap with Household Chemicals 

Well people, its called "How to extract gold", not "How to get rich" from extracting gold. Absolutely loved the chemical processes. Really fun to watch. And especially all the time and effort it took to do this.

I been studying the refining system a lot. Today , you have really made it simple as compared to those other fancy systems. I can now process all my pins and fingers. Thank you deeply.

A very interesting video which confirms that extracting gold from computer wastes is best left to professionals. Thank you

It's incredibly interesting to see the chemistry behind this. I'm lucky enough to mine it from streams so it's amazing to see people mining it out of urban environments.

Thank you for showing me that method of gold recovery from electronic scrap. Not only did I learn a new chemical process, but also that I should stick to my day job! Very nice video.

Truly an incredible teaching tool and teacher. The myth and your motivation aside, I found the roadtrip mesmerizing. My thanks!

I never liked chemistry back in school but you got me hooked. Fascinating to see a wizard going back and fro between solid and liquid state. Great job!

Im amazed by the amount of resources you have. Im getting ready to do a t.v and this is alot more than i expected.

DUDE HATS OFF TO YA THE WHOLE PROCESS WAS INTRESTING THANK YOU

props for including the info for disposing of the waste in a responsible manner .

I enjoyed watching you do this. Well worth my time to watch, in fact, I could watch videos like this great one for days. Thanks for posting it.

The real gold is what he’s extracting from millions of you tube views. Nice video; very interesting 😀

While the extracted gold might not be worth all of the trouble extracting it, I totally enjoyed the video and found it very informative and now I feel like getting the chemistry set out. The best thing is NO MERCURY was used! Great Job!!

What patience and dedication to do this. I personally don’t think I would do it, just out of laziness. But I’m sure going to show this to other people who may be interested. Great job!

One of the best videos I have ever watched on RU-vid. Thank you.

I enjoyed watching your showing of getting the gold simply compared to those who would make it seem almost untouchable thank you and God bless you for your efforts

Excellent video. Content very nicely organized and presented. Negative comments by people not paying attention to the information given at the beginning of the video, i.e. (a) safety precautions (b) assessing whether the process would realistically be a financial success (c) etc. Those paying attention from the beginning of the video gained some very important educational information and knowledge and wisdom.

Thanks for the video. I watch most of the videos on processing e-waste, so I can learn from them. I hove been scraping for over 6 years now and when I get computers I divide everything up onto categories and set them aside until I think I have enought. I have an 8X8X8 box full of ceramic processors and ready to be processed. So again thank you for your time in making these videos.

Well versed in chemistry with solid lab technique. This was obviously not his first chemistry set! End to end process was well documented. Enough warnings and cautions to be safe but is not overbearing. Detailed enough documentation so after watching, someone with similar skills and equipment will have the info necessary to reproduce. Very interesting video to watch. Subscribed!

I’ve always enjoyed my time in the labs when I was at university especially chemistry and bio sciences. Obviously it’s hard to make a buck. Thanks for a great video. I’ve liked and subscribed.

It was fun to watch, I really like that you didn't put an audio file in the background.

Please remember that RECOVERY and REFINING are two totally different processes. With escrap, and with many other forms of gold scrap, the gold must first be RECOVERED from the scrap before it can be REFINED to high purity gold. In this video, RECOVERY is the process of separating the gold from the circuit card material that the gold foils cling to. I used hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide with an aquarium bubbler to RECOVER the gold foils so that those foils could be REFINED in later steps. After the gold foils were lifted from the circuit card fingers by the action of the the air bubbling through the hydrochloric acid and over-the-counter 3% hydrogen peroxide, I collected all the foils in coffee filters - at this point the RECOVERY process is complete. Now I proceed to the REFINING of the RECOVERED gold foils. REFINING is the process of 1) dissolving the gold foils 2) filtering out insoluble material 3) then reconstituting the gold out of solution with a chemical precipitant, in this video I used sodium metabisulfite. Sodium metabisulfite, when mixed with the chloroauric acid (dissolved gold) produces sulfur dioxide gas. The gold atoms in the chloroauric acid have an affinity for the sulfur atoms in the gas and they begin to cling to the sulfur atoms, but they don't bond chemically. At some point the gold gets too heavy and falls (precipitates) out of solution. When this happens then the REFINING process is complete. RECOVERY and REFINING are two totally different processes.

Thanks for showing us your process and posting it here. Based on many of the comments you did a great job and most enjoyed watching you.

The total experience was fascinating and well worth the time spent watching. Never too old to learn new stuff.

This video was very educational and informative. Thank you for taking your own time and money to show everyone exactly how these processes work.

Great job. Very educational and great presentation. If I would of had teachers like you when I was in school, chances are good I would have understood chemistry more. Thanks for taking the time to make such an excellent video.

Excellent description and step by step demonstration of the process, Thank you!

It's incredible how efficient we are at using it. 1 gram from 500grams of trimmed circuit card fingers! This was educational, awesome video!

interesting video ....quite a little setup as well ...looks like a good end product .that bubbler beaker reminded me of my younger days ..thanks for taking the time to teach at ur expense

Wow, very well put together. Informative and involved process but looks kinda fun. Thank you for sharing brother, gained a new scriber.

This guy has very good lab skills! Did not expect that redox reaction at the end to precipitate gold.

I enjoyed this video. Not only was is relaxing and informative thanks for being clear. Made me want to study chemistry

I just wanted to add to the newer viewers that this video is NOT about making money by getting gold in this manner. He is just showing the process that can be used. He is already aware that it cost more to scavange the gold by this method with the current price of gold! Add in the cost of the chemicals, equipment and what the trimmed fingers costs you and your return is less then $50. So please stop posting the same response/question that has been posted and answered several times. I guess some people just don't listen or somehow miss the lesson in chemistry he was giving. He has repeatedly stated that he didn't do this for profit. Great video and I may just try it for the heck of it. Yes, I have that much free time on my hands. LOL. Thanks... :)

If you take nothing else away from this . If this was something you though you would be interested in doing but you didn't know how, well know you know and you have to decide if it's worth the time and money. Thanks for doing all the hard work so I can forget my get rich quick scheme.

I was glued to the screen. There is something soothing about the procedure. Thank you.

moral of the story: always be the guy selling the magic beans

Wow,very cool.it only took 3-4 years to find and watch your video on how to do this correctly!

The video was very interesting and informative, thank you. As for some of the comments, the video isn't titled "How to get rich extracting gold from computer parts".

Loved seeing the whole process which was very well explained and well presented. Thanks.

That was pretty cool. I'd probably accidentally mix the wrong thing and blow something up so you are looking like a real genius to me right now. Takes alot to make a little but your demonstration is priceless. Thank you.

I found the video to be very informative as well as entertaining. This was a more advanced technological (chemistry) way of mining for gold.

Regardless of the negative comments I found this vid to be quite interesting. Thanks.

Very informative and nicely put together. I really learned a lot Sreetips, thanks for taking the time to put this together.

I know... I just watched this video a couple of weeks ago. But if I set a goal to watch all of your videos then I'm going to watch ALL your videos!! Have a GREAT Day!!!

This was educational, and informative. Thank you and appreciate your time by bringing awareness on how these sellers charging people so much money for the scrap that is not worth the time, money, and the coast to get such a small ( Tiny ) amount of gold. But, I will say the scientific/chemical processes was cool.

You are a Amazing, I would have fun everyday doing that if I could. I love science, and smithing. Both together as one that I would like to do. Great work I love it.

I don't know how I stumbled on this page, but I'm glad I did! I always wondered how much trouble it would be to "extract" gold from a computer and now I know (a TON!). Kudos on the video. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it!

As a retired science teacher I was in aah of the presenters expertise in using the lab utencils and chemicals. Good job.

Very interesting, a lot of processes to go through, I don’t think I would have the patience to do that.

Very cool! I always wondered what stump out was, it works great. This video teaches more than one thinks.

I really enjoyed watching this process. Keep up the good work. :)

Thank you for taking the time to make this movie - it looks like more work than fun or profit - Chemicals, beakers, raw material, labor - coulda just bought a gold chain on sale at walmart.

Allot of steps to process all of that just to get the gold. Very interesting video. Thank you for sharing.

Never saw this before. Very interesting video. Cool to see it done.

I know a person that does this for a living. She has so many stacks of old computers and odd equipment. I never knew it took this much effort to obtain so little Gold. Fascinating

Great video, I'm starting to enjoy these "Recover" Gold videos. It's pretty interesting plus the chemistry is pretty cool too. I thought you would get a little more Gold outta that but it is what it is.

Very interesting video ! Quite a process to it, but you showed how anybody could do it with just household chemicals. Very good & informative !!

Next time with the gold fingers, use a flat headed soldering iron to scrape them off, this is quicker than cutting strips and makes removing the gold plaiting quicker

This was really interesting! Thank you for making this video. I just assumed gold could only be smelted from rocks etc. I never knew it could come from a liquid too then re-made into solid again. Fascinating stuff

And this very video will forever remind me that chemistry is NOT for the impatient haha very nice!

You reminded of Walter White. Good job man. You've got patience.

I quite enjoyed this video. Not only is the subject interesting, but many of the comments are amusingly foolish. There is value here; value in the immediately-useful sense of YT revenue, and value in the long-term sense of recycling. Gold is not only pretty, it is fantastically useful. Many medical uses for gold exist, which some people do not know. There is no reason to waste any of it. Regardless of small-scale costs for this experiment, clearly the process itself is straightforward and effective.

A very nice way to make money, not from the gold recovery which loses but from the youtube vid watchers now nearing seven million, and i expect we all enjoyed watching it, well done sreetips

Watched this video when it came out in 2015, and i had forgotten that you had no narration. I like the newer videos where you narrate.

Great video..thorough enough to learn and do if I wanted...thank you

This is better than looking for gold in a dirty mine

Man your system seems so much quicker & easier than another video I watched . It seemed he used more chemicals & a longer process

You have the best video for any Layman who wants to try and refined some gold fingers. You are the real James Bond.

thanks so much for your work! really appreciate

That was fun to watch, but I was surprised there was no recap to see if he made money. From what I can tell he did not. He bought 5 pounds (2262 grams ) of trimmed material for $417. At the time he purchased the 5 pounds, gold was $1,130 or $40 a gram. He ran 500 grams of fingers as a test, or 22% of his material. 22% of his $417 investment was $92, so to make money on his test he needed to make more than $92, not including time and chemicals. He yielded 1 gram of gold at $40, and spent $92 for the “fingers”, so he lost $52. The whole 5 pounds of "fingers", assuming the same yield, would yield 4.52 grams of gold or $181; a total loss of $236.

That was very informative. I have always wondered where the gold was and how to remove it from computer parts. Thank you very much.

A great tutorial. My only suggestion is that anyone doing it please make sure you have first aid information & supplies on hand in case you aren't as carefully, meticulous as Streetips!

Seems like the best money to be made is collecting, cutting and selling the fingers.

Very interesting, looks like a great hobby. Like any hobby you certainly aren't going to get rich doing it. well done

Thank you. I learned a great deal. And I found the no talking just doing format refreshing

Interesting and informative. Now I know to leave this for others to do, not me. Thank you.

Very intense process I'd never really thought about, and yet here I am after many RU-vid clicks.

as I was watching your video I thought of mr. white on the tv show breaking bad. the video was very interesting and educational. thank you for the video.

Great video.... fun to watch! Awesome job on all your hard work. Nice sized nugget you got too 👍

I’m learning these processes just to learn them and experiment as a hobby and maybe use my college chemistry for once. I definitely won’t quit my day job and scrapping is a spare time hobby as is learning to refine/recover. Ever climb a mountain or accomplish something just to say you did it? Kind of like that. AND I love precious metals!😁 thanks!

i enjoyed the video as i'm a experimenting type person ! nice to see other's like me thanks AL

Very informing and honest. Thanks!

Great video. I am just watching videos to help my son with his chemistry. I like this as the chemicals you have there are readily available. I think I need to sort my scrap into circuit boards with gold foils to be removed by this process and other items that need to have gold plating stripped from base metals. Thank you.

This was the easiest step by step instruction video to understand i'v ever watched

Johann Moser.. Don't you just hate it when people don't LISTEN to the commentator. This is a demonstration on how to get the gold from computer cards and nothing more, but most are thinking this is some great way to get rich. It's not a get rich scheme, and in fact at current gold prices you would lose money. I think he makes this very clear in his video. BTW, Thanks to sreetips (the poster of this video) for being honest and saying he is trying to make money by getting views to this video, not by selling something. If nothing else it's intreesting and perhaps someone knows of products that contain more gold the PCs and would make this profitable, but I know of no other consumer product that uses as much gold as PCs besides art work or jewlery which are already way over priced!! Thanks... :)

Very interesting thanks for showing us

AH, NOW I UNDERSTAND THOSE NOTICES STATING THAT WE WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR OLD ELECTRONIC DEVICES FOR FREE AND JUST IMAGINE THE YIELDS OF GOLD TO BE HAD FROM A LARGE SCALE PROCESSING PLANT. THANK YOU FOR THE VIDEO WHICH WAS VERY INFORMATIVE AND NEVER BORING.

It was so fascinating to watch one from 7 years ago. Awesome. 👍

Very cool and interesting video. It was educational to those unfamiliar with the process. Crazy how some people fail to recognize the educational aspect of this and instead assume you were trying to show "how to get rich off mining gold from old computer parts". Haha. Cool video. Thanks for taking the time to create it and share -- regardless of the final $$$ yield, since that wasn't the ultimate point. (I.e. point was to inform and educate on how one process could be taken to extract gold from old parts.....period!) Cheers!

Great! Now I'm stuck thinking where i can procure a railcar full of clean processed finger boards along with tanker cars of peroxide and hydrochloric acid.

Fun to watch how it’s done. Even tho this video is 4 years old. It’s interesting to see how much is needed to accomplish this process.

I’d like to point out that his scale that he uses says “Gold Series”

Thanks for the video. I was wondering how it was done. I will subscribe.

i wouldn't mind doing this for a hobby. i love chemistry and like to put in practice. it may not be much gold but it takes 100 pennies to make a dollar. thanks for sharing your talent. bob

Great job and wonderful demo! You truly gave me an idea to work with and inspiration. One note for your safety- I noticed you corrected yourself on the plastic gloves! But when using the HCL to rinse, I’d suggest using plastic gloves there and not those leather work gloves! The leather will just absorb the acids and burn your fingers and hands up man! Like I said, just a safety note as the rest is spot on. Amazing job!

Fascinating to watch. Thank you sreetips!

what do you think they do with recycled computers and cell phones and other electronics gold is a great economic conductor in technology

Hey, thanks for that informative video. I think many watching missed the point.

Some things are just cool to watch, regardless of the financial outcome. This is one of them.

I found the video well presented. That it explained the process with text rather than audio made it convenient to pause, read and comprehend rather than "stop, go back, play and listen again" as so often is the case with most videos. For those who question the time and material cost verses profit, consider that sreetips has found his way to earn money working for himself. Letting the chemicles do their work while he is doing something else such as producing videos for those of us looking to educate ourselves or who are just curious shows that he is modivated to get ahead. I've often wondered how involved the process of recovering gold from electronics is. Now I know more than I did before I stumbled onto this video. Clearly it's a time consuming process.