Circuit Boards – Precious, Semi-Precious and Base Metal Recovery

Submitted by Creighton.Bildstein on Thu, 04/22/2010 - 22:23

Circuit boards with no re-use value because of obsolescence, damage or required repair are frequently disposed to scrap dealers for nothing or very little money.  Most people don’t realize, to their own detriment, the commodity makeup of a circuit board.  Below is a partial list compiled by the Technical University of Denmark from an assay they conducted.

MATERIALS FOUND IN ONE TON OF RANDOM ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT BOARDS
Material LBS/Ton
 

Plastics 600
Copper 286 
Iron 90
Bromine 56
Tin 44
Nickel 40
Zinc 9
Silver 1 
Gold 1 
Tantalum 0.38
Molybdenum 0.31
Palladium 0.25 
Cobalt 0.17
Cerium 0.1
Platinum 0.07 
Lanthanum 0.06

As you can see, if your company is giving boards away or taking very little for them, you are literally giving away gold.  Now, it’s not easy to get the true value for them.  Large quantities must be consolidated and separated in order to make up a shipment large enough to offset certain costs and then recover the material value.  There are many associated expenses – sampling, assaying, shipping, treatment, shredding, etc. – that are deducted from the final price.  If you have access to large volumes, you can get what they’re truly worth.  If not, you can sell them to a company like ATNI and piggyback off of their volume, success and relationships to as close as possible to their full value:

 

Average Telecom Circuit Boards

Weight Shipped:

   20,000.00

lbs

  291,666.00

ozt

    9,071.94

kg

                        9.07

Mt
                   

Estimated Assay:

                
                   

Gold

  

       470.00

gms/mt

        0.0470

%

  

 

    

Silver

  

     1,500.00

gms/mt

        0.1500

%

  

 

    

Palladium

       100.00

gms/mt

        0.0100

%

  

 

    

Copper

  

         22.00

%

          22.00

%

  

 

    
                   

Gross Metal Content:

      

Markets

  

Gross Value

  
                   

Gold

  

137.08

ozt

    

 $ 1,108.80

  

 $            151,999.45

  

Silver

  

437.50

ozt

    

 $      17.11

  

 $               7,485.70

  

Palladium

29.17

ozt

    

 $    462.00

  

 $             13,475.13

  

Copper

  

     4,400.00

lbs

    

 $        3.20

  

 $             14,080.00

  
                   
           

Gross Value

 $            187,040.27

 
                   

Treatment:

 $     700.00

per MT

        

 $              (6,350.36)

  

Shredding:

 $     100.00

per MT

        

 $                 (907.19)

  

Sampling:

 $  1,500.00

per lot

        

 $              (1,500.00)

  

Assay:

  

 $     250.00

pe rlot

        

 $                 (250.00)

  
                   
             

Treatment, Sampling & Assay   

 $              (9,007.55)

  
                   

Metal Acountability:

Min. Ded.

Applied

    

Retension Cost

  
                   

Gold

     95.00

%

     10.00

gms/mt

    95.00

%

  

 $              (7,599.97)

  

Silver

     95.00

%

    100.00

gms/mt

    93.33

%

  

 $                 (499.05)

  

Palladium

     90.00

%

     15.00

gms/mt

    85.00

%

  

 $              (2,021.27)

  

Copper

     86.30

 %

       2.50

units

    86.30

%

  

 $              (1,928.96)

  
                   
           

Retension Cost

 $            (12,049.25)

  
                   

Net Metal Recovery:

  

Refining Rate:

    

Refining Cost

  
                   

Gold

  

       130.23

ozt

 $         5.00

      

 $                 (651.15)

  

Silver

  

       408.34

ozt

 $         0.50

      

 $                 (204.17)

  

Palladium

         24.79

ozt

 $       18.50

      

 $                 (458.65)

  

Copper

  

     3,797.20

lbs

 $         0.20

      

 $                 (759.44)

  
                   
           

Refining Cost

 $              (2,073.41)

  
                   
           

Total Cost

 

 $            (23,130.21)

  
           

Total Cost per MT

 $              (2,549.64)

  
                   
           

Net Value paid

 $            163,910.06

 
           

Net Value per MT

 $             18,067.81

 
           

Net Value per Lb.

 $                     8.20

 
                   
           

Inland freight:

 $                  850.00

  
           

Ocean Freight:

 $               4,000.00

  
             

Net $/lb after freight:   

 $                     7.95

 

 

ATNI requires a minimum of one Gaylord box of circuit boards weighing at least 500 pounds.  If interested, please e-mail photos and information to: info@atni.us.  Thank you.