How Scrappers Cash In On Gold From Your Old Computer | World Wide Waste | Business Insider
One ton of circuit boards contains about 100 times more gold than a ton of ore mined from the ground. Now, scrappers like Wade Cawley in Sydney, Australia, are cashing in. He’s partnered with Mint Innovation, a company that uses microbes to recover precious metals from electronics. In a single day, Mint can salvage up to $85,000 of gold in their new recycling facility.
Editor’s Note: January 26, 2024 - An earlier version of this video included a graphic that incorrectly identified "Jason Gaber" as "Jacob."
00.00 - $85,000 Per Day
01:24 - Urban Mining
01:56 - Finding Gold In Electronics
02:45 - Massive Recycling Problems
03:09 - Shark Scrapper
04:05 - Making Money From Scrap
04:45 - Dangers in India's E-Waste
06:25 - Mint Innovation - Australia
07:35 - Mint's Methods
08:40 - Recovering Copper And Tin
09:02 - Extracting The Gold
10:08 - Why It’s Safer
10:38 - Wade’s Vintage Electronics
11:35 - Most Valuable E-Waste
12:14 - The Export Problem
12:57 - Credits
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How Scrappers Cash In On Gold From Your Old Computer | World Wide Waste | Business Insider
Want to see more of this trash? Have a question? Let us know! Send tips about surprising or innovative ways people deal with garbage to worldwidewaste@businessinsider.com. Your message could inspire our next episode!
If we really want to reduce e-waste we need to force companies to start making products that are repairable again instead of designing them to be thrown out and replaced.
Electrification will make E- waste explode
And upgradeable with interchangeable parts. Like how you can build your own pc, should be like that for phones and different phone brands. So over the years you’ll end up wit a different phone but through parts and updates. Not buying entire new computer, game console.
@@302big5 imagine that being the case for game consoles, where we wouldn't have been today
But company cannot survie on that. they need a constant need of products.
@caragas9331 just constantly sell "new and exciting!" product-parts that are just a step or two better every few years. those susceptible to the temptation will buy new parts each year and sell or scrap their old parts
This takes "one man's trash is another man's treasure" to the next level.
10X your trash 😂
@@Repent-and-believe-in-Jesus1 pursuasion does not always work my guy.
why do you post these in comments?@@Repent-and-believe-in-Jesus1
If you consider treasure as gold, then it also takes it to the literal level
@@gabox17da88 the real treasure is the comments we read along the way 😊
In the Netherlands there's a big problem called 'weeelabex' This means if you own a business then it's illegal if you dismantle electronics, with the exception if you get a very expensive and regulated licence. So allot of people sell it illegally overseas.. Talk about environmental friendly.
Refreshing to hear other country bureaucrats are just as boring as USA.
Why is it illegal to dismantle electronics?
@@hermaeusmora2945 only with a license, if not you get fined big.. Why? Big companies got a monopoly position
@@robertthallium6883 😂
@@hermaeusmora2945 Only certified companies are allowed to handle electronic waste due to environmental risks
They went to old mines to harvest specific types of bacteria to help with their extraction process. How cool!
really? that's pretty cool!
you are being sarcastic... but the bacteria now can break down plastic into fuel... jokes on you
@@gayraffehe was ironically being sarcastic and actually its true... little does he know 😅
@@dertythegrower you dont need bacteria to turn plastic into fuel just pyrolysis
@@dertythegrower It didn't read like sarcasm to me. You may be misinterpreting over text
I am intrigued to know what happens to the 70% plastic that was shredded and turned into a pulp.
Usually gets burned by waste plants for energy.
Since they already use some bacterial and fungal species to collect and absorb some of the metals, they might have some fungi or bacteria that specifically break down plastics.
@@Bluenautica Not yet, but they are working on a bacteria derived from wax worms.
Smoothie for the braves 😋
Landfill. Plastics aren't recycled.
Old but literally gold.
just to get that much gold they literally have to reprocess god knows how many tons of motherboards.
Yeah and the fact there’s like incredibly small pieces of gold in old computers makes these guys want to rip them apart when some old computers are fine and work normally but still go into the shredder to make like .0001 USD when it could have a resale value of much more.
As a newbie that wants to invest, you must have these three things in mind 1. Have a long term mindset. 2. Be willing to take risk. 3. Be careful on money usage, if you're not spending to earn back, then stop spending. 4. Never claim to know - Ask questions and it's best you work with a financial advisor.
I'm favoured financially, Thank you Jesus $32,000 weekly profit regardless of how bad it gets on the economy.
Thanks for continuing updates I'd rather trade the stock market as it's more profitable. I make an average of $34,500 per week even though I barely trade myself.
How ..? Am a newbie in crypto investment, please can you guide me through on how you made profit?
Thanks to Mrs Maria Davis.
She's a licensed broker here in the states
That’s actually a really impressive facility Mint has there
Here's a rough idea/business plan for Mint: 1) Create a nonprofit arm focused on developing countries. 2) Open a new processing plant in Dehli, India. 3) Recruit and train the people currently working on electronic stripping into full, safety-regulated employment in the plant. (Unsure what the age labor laws are there, but there could also be a combination of school credit and money paid to kids working there.) 4) Repeat this process in other developing countries where we "outsource" electrical recycling. A plan like this can make a difference where "developed" have historically created problems by dumping such waste. Great video and cool companies!
It’s unfortunate that this right thing to do never deems profitable enough to make companies execute this
@@donovanlewis6708 that and the fact that , this company would be raided daily by organized crime
thats makes no sense at all to open in india as there labour is cheaper than doing it automated and the costs of you having to ship to india not cheap at all it only works to do in the 1st world were labour costs are high and were most of the waste comes from and no need for expensive shipping
The business plan is to use idiots in the government to force citizens to pay to make the company money, at a horrible cost to the taxpayer and environment.
The plant is almost fully automated like a dozen people can run the entire operation. You'd end up with a big security problem
I did this for years from 1999 to 2006, but most of them I repurposed into homes that couldn't afford them... It was a hobby, and a learning experience.
Was it worth it?
@@michaelzedalis4690 yes, it was.. the satisfaction of watching someone succeed where they wouldn't have is a priceless feeling.
@@michaelzedalis4690 absolutely not lmao
Depends. On its own yes but if there was a much better way of doing it then it be considered a waste. 7 years is a lot of time to expand and improve on your hobby.
@@michaelzedalis4690 yes
I was in a high school program for kids who were getting into trouble a lot. Where we would have to tear apart old computers all day and sort the pieces into cardboard boxes I always wondered how much money they were making off us.
cost of recycle have always been high, let's hope they can keep it running
@@asfsfas2435 can you see this comment?
Answer is: below average hourly wage. These computers are not yours so you can't add that money.
@@Repent-and-believe-in-Jesus1 Yeah turn the other cheek. Matthew 5:38-40
@@Repent-and-believe-in-Jesus1 Harry Potter The Chamber of Secrets. Chapter 18. "Dobby has a sock! Dobby is a Free Elf!" Glad we are sharing fictional pieces of literature!
Thank you to those people who help us recycling and thank you for doing such a nice informative video
That's awesome! Golden opportunity to turn waste into precious metals and these guys nail it!
This is bogus nonsense. I had a friend who had STACKS of various CPU's and RAM back in the day, he barely got a tiny bead out of all of it. You'd need THOUSANDS, maybe tens of thousands computers make $85 in gold off it.
@@AngryAmericanWizard yeah, chip interconnects used gold decades ago, when the silicon production was not so advance and the scale wasn't in nanometers. sure you can collect all the "retro" hardware you can find, but several tons are needed to make a tiny quantity of gold. $85k a day? unlikely, unless he managed to find all the monsterous supercomputer chips that still exist. you need extreme knowledge of exactly which electronics have the potential to make this kind of worth the risk. i'm sure he makes more money with general elctr. recycling, than extracted gold.
@@AngryAmericanWizard Only need about 3 old computers or 8 modern computers to make $85 in gold But its not worth it, getting an education is better outcome
@@AngryAmericanWizard no, old CPU is 0,1 g Gold, you need 10 for a gram
That business model will break down soon. Modern electronics are so low in valuable content, that in 5 years you won't be able to make money on it. Except if the gold price multiplies by 10.
The parts are so rare today that their value to people who want old computers is greater than the melt price. The supply IS limited and you can not find old computers anymore, that have large amounts of Gold in them.
Ughh I have a few old laptops in my attic and we just threw out two very old desk top computers . I didn’t think they were worth anything. The local computer repair shop gladly took it from us to recycle. We just wanted them gone. Too big and awaste of space . Now that I think about it, I’ve given away a lot of valuable stuff. Just to get rid of, or because it was a gift from an ex and I wanted the memory gone.
Even in old computers, there's not a huge amount of gold in your average apple II.
@@JustanotherLiz to get 1gram of gold you need about 100 old computers,dont worry you didnt waste much
@@flyagaric007agree
@@flyagaric007 that's not what the post is about
This is absolutely beautiful. We need more work like this being done in the world.
Why aren't you do it?
nothing is beautiful here guy literally said it's hard labor for a single person you earn better at MC donalds you need expensive eqipment to handle all that waste i'm not even talking about how unhealthy it is to scrap that at home
There are many people out of jobs and they might not be the most wanted people by your average HR department. These people do a fine job in these centers and gives them a sense of purpose. I have done this work myself with many others. The money it brings in go's to refugee programs and animal welfare/meat alternative research. Which makes the work people do there even more rewarding. @@mariuxxxx1
@@mariuxxxx1did you watch the same video that I did? The whole point of the video was stating that this new company is using a larger scale and new technology to improve the process so it is less harmful and more efficient.
Wade! That portable Compaq was what I flew my first helicopter sim on back in 91. That Compaq is what got me into computers. 11:20
That gold bar is more beautiful than any gold jewellery I've ever seen 🤩
0:39 That computer is worth more as is than the gold extracted from it - about $280 for collectors
11:20 they clearly say it's part of his own collection, not for recycling.
@@cyberchiefx they also said that he might want to consider scrapping them since they have more gold than modern tech. which... like, i get it technically, but that's like saying you should melt down a gold coin from ancient egypt. the form and the history have way more value than the material. it will also increase in value over time, unlike the gold inside it.
I shur would like to find a collector who would pay that kind of money here in Southern Ohio.
How are you going to get it to the collector?
@@meepk633 eBay
It's so great this report has come to us people. Personally I've saved all my phones I've purchased over the last 15 years lol. All 3 of them, I can't manage to throw away any laptops either I've owned, all 2 of them. It seems like such a huge waste to throw away like trash. I did bring one large TV to the recycling place though after I couldn't fix it myself. I have 2 others that are stored in my garage, also unfixable. People really need to pay attention to their electronics waste and like another poster said, hold companies accountable but it really starts with us.
I'm the same...every mobile from me and my kids, the laptops and desktops...oh, and ipods...lol unfortunately, due to hard financial times i had sold both my Nokia's....i think i had a 5510 and a 3310.... still breaks my heart that i did that
1:11 Ya, that Apple II is getting sold as vintage instead of getting processed.
All depends on amount you can store, what you have access too process the waste and comes down to money for investing (its why it can work as a side hustle in some places but others not as the time isn't worth it) but long term having less e-waste an more recyclable will make the world a better place. Don't know where Wade does his stuff but rent alone in most places in sydney would outweigh what you could collect an turn over in most cases + if its run as a business or even side hustle he probably isn't actually follow worksafe requirements by the state of that storage space an what he does or paying taxes for the income which would take a chunk (which is why sometimes people who scrap or work for themselves actually cause issues with the systems in place because of declaring it etc)
It's always fun to find capacitors that still have a charge. Makes your heart tickle 😅
Wade is the man 👍
“..family nicknamed it flash because it’s red, it’s electric and it buzzes around everywhere” is absolutely gold.
This was such a feel good video. Super glad this sort of thing is growing in Aus and NZ.
0:12 Jason from MBMMLLC!! Thats my neighbor!
he has a great KZhead channel. I watch it all the time.
Was NOT expecting to see him within the first few seconds of this video hahahah! So good! :D
Great stuff. Crazy to dig it out of the ground when it's already concentrated in rubbish.
The best e-waste comes from decommissioned army boats and submarines. There’s so much gold in the boards they use in the consoles. Also old school Pentium Pro CPUs are highly regarded and sought after for their gold content.
Freakin fascinating! Just think if each city had a nice handful of these guys, from early on in the making of a city. So glad this electronic recycling is happening more often.
Im really happy to see as much as possible getting recycled! As a "tech enthusiast" it does make me kind of sad to see some of these things destroyed, even if most of it is garbage to anybody else... I wonder what kind of collector's gold has has been shedded for its actual gold content!
Look online, quite a lot. As the stuff that's highly collectable also tends to be of the age that it has quite a lot of gold compared to modern devices.
@@relo999 I cringed when I saw all of those wires getting cut. I know time is of the essence, but would it kill them to at least unplug the cables that have sockets :( Now that I think about it, a lot of the newer stuff would be better off reused anyway. It's only the metals that get recycled from this process. The plastics still end up in the garbage.
@@Omegapork Problem is the sockets are made of plastic, which you need to separate out.
I'm one man, with one truck and a small garage. I live in a big city in western Canada where metal waste is in abundance. I also noted that it wasn't mentioned in the video is the aluminum that also accompanies circuit boards. We can't just keep taking from the earth.
Huh. Neat to see Jason Gaber!
People may call me cheap but I hold onto my electronics until I absolutely can't do anything with them. I take pride in being cheap and not wanting to produce more e-waste. Some time back, there was a 60 minutes story about children in China picking apart hazardous e-waste for just a few dollars a day. The water was undrinkable in their village due to massive amounts of chemicals. That really broke my heart to see that. We wouldn't want that for our kids or anyone else's kids or anyone for that matter. Be proud , be cheap and do your part to reduce waste.
You are a good steward of the Earth.
Can you share the video link which you mentioned?
So interesting .. lots of good information ....neat to see things taken care of the right way... 🙂👍 good video
This is such a beautiful process, and I'm genuinely impressed. Your work has the potential to make history and shape the future. Keep pushing boundaries, making a positive impact, and inspiring others to join the journey. I genuinely hope more people contribute to your mission. Let's envision a future where your efforts continue to clean up more waste, and we can all lend a helping hand. You're crafting a legacy. Keep changing the game and rewriting the future!
We’re actually writing a book on this right now for the US market. Will definitely be reaching out to Wade.
Tons of electronics recycling companies in the US already. My facility processes 40000lbs a month. 2 semi trucks. Look up R2 certified companies and you will find a ton of responsible electronics recyclers.
@@justinzoohouse9918Is it a well established market already? How does starting up somewhere like central Colorado look like? Been toying with this idea for the last couple of weeks since I first seen this video. Was interested in picking at someone’s brain who is either in this business or works adjacent to it.
i am also obsessed with vintage technology like cool these things were!!
this is the type of business I would love to be apart of! This is amazing.
Nearly twenty years ago I hauled what the paper work said were computers to the USA from Canada . Ended up on a rough road narrow as well. Not an industrial area at all . Found the place . It was a house with a new barn like building in which a small number of people sat at a bench and took the metals from the boards. I had thought it was new computers so I was going really slow on that old dirt road because I did not want damage. Anyway they guys opened the doors and it was just a huge pile of junk in my trailer. The guy told me it was very profitable
Lmao that's pretty funny
What a great idea. People like wade and mint are crucial
Wade is trying to take jobs from those in India….
No, people conscious of savage consumerism are crucial in the first place.
@@TheGreatestShowman69they only recycled like a 3rd of their ewaste. I'm sure they will be find for quite a while
@@TheGreatestShowman69 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@TheGreatestShowman69 nothing wrong with wanting to keep the money for your own country
This is what I do, only not as advanced as Wade's setup we don't break things down in the warehouse into materials, we basically refurbish ewaste if someone wants to buy it, if not we break it down into parts eg circuit boards with gold plating and sort those to send off, I have gloves and we have a hydraulic press to separate metals (although I never used it) I'm from England and I genuinely love this job, I work with a few people it's like a small team and this isn't my real job, only my work experience but I genuinely love it and I hope I can do this as a career I am actually treated well and respected in my work and it's just a great energy from everyone even my boss is so damn nice and chill and I reach my qoutas well
In the uk aswell, how did you come across the people you work with,? it's something i'd like to get into myself.
I knew a teaching assistant at college who's cousin done this work, so I got lucky
I'm happy to see that Wade attempts to repair and refurbish before sending things to scrap right away.
As an indian i didn't knew this was happening in India This video showed the other side of the world to me Thank you for putting out this video
Maybe help your fellow poor Indians .
@@JustanotherLiz may be u help yourself with improving ur mental state and start being respectful towards other people What's the use of being rich and wealthy when u don't know how to be respectful and humble
I don't mean to be disrespectful at all with my comment, so please do not be insulted by what I'm about to ask, but I genuinely wonder: are you as an Indian, probably living in a well developed area of India, aware of the general image of your country abroad? Sadly, most imagery that I come across involve extremely polluted cities, at least compared to cities in my country (Czech Republic), and I must say that my people can be considered quite bad at keeping their environment clean as opposed to, say, Austrians or Germans. Said imagery makes it look like India is mostly polluted wasteland, much like as shown in this video. And I have no idea what India is actually like in general. Of course, there areas that are more developed than others, but how "common" is it for Indians to live and work in places like those shown in this video? With such questions asked, I can add that I personally have pretty much no idea how my country is perceived abroad. I know we earned some bad reputation with our neighbors (there was a time when Austria placed signs along borders that asked us not to steal in their country, the Polish are rightfully pissed at us for storming their shops for much, much cheaper goods), but I wonder what other countries think of us - if they even know about us, we are a rather tiny country.
@@JustanotherLiz>NYC
@@jahnavi.youtube 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I was not expecting to see Jason on this channel lol
The thing is as a consumer the government tacks an "e-waste fee" onto something we buy then we expect it will be handled with by the government in some way either by overseeing that ewaste collectors follow all regs and don't just dump the toxic byproducts in the sewer or whatever. But a lot of that recovery, yeah there's cheap which leaves toxic messes, and then there's refined which also has toxic byproducts. Although that bacterial and fungal bit is kind of cool, be interested to know more about it but of course the company is keeping that all under wraps.
In Finland we have Kuusakoski oy that does this on a large scale. Big local electronic stores have to take in your E-waste and all of it gets reused or broken down to reusable raw materials. Even the plastic bits can be reused. 👍
Well done Wade and Mint. The useless governments in Australia should be providing financial backing to help acquire the equipment needed rather than wasting it like they love to do. The private sector leads the way…..again.
Thank you for doing this ❤ you're a pioneer in the truest sense ❤
Back in the 70s and sometimes in the 80s they were going through old gold mines and trying to leach the gold out of the tailings left after the easy to extract gold was removed. They were selling stock in the process, and they made a lot of money suckering people to by the stock, and none of the mines ever produced any gold worth the money spent on the stocks!
Wade we love people like you!
Do you really think he's going through here reading your comments? Are you okay bud?
7:30 something doesn’t add up here. They use bacteria AND fungi to get the gold? But the byproduct is toxic enough for them to not want people around it at all, and so the facility is mostly automated? How could any cellular organism dissolve gold, which is famously non-reactive, quicker than more economically viable than just using aqua regia?
Cyanide is much more economical and safe than aqua regia. Potassium iodide etches gold. There are possibilities.
The toxic byproducts are just the plastics and silica that is used in the PCB making. The process is using bacteria to produce chloroauric acid and the fungi then breaks this acid down into gold nano-particles which are purple. Its far cheaper than aqua regia because the bacteria reproduce by themselves so the extraction chemicals are self replicating, whereas you have to buy the acid and have additional machinery to deliver it safely. You then have the extract from the acid again before you can purify which is an additional step.
That's brilliant and beautiful to see that they're taking care of their own e-waste and earning money with it
Starting to believe algorithm reads minds, I was thinking about this the other day and now i get it recommended.
If you are a mom - be sure that your child have access to your garage, it seems that everyone started from there for some reason xD It would be good to not become a mom before owning a garage too xD
It is where people store their garbage for six days before the bin goes out for the local pickup
I agree completely
the "secret stuff" is aqua regia, you drop gold in it desolves, then when you feel you have collected enough liquid gold, you throw tin powder in, the gold will harden and sink to the bottom
How cool. Thank you for the info. You’re awesome ❤
Ernie! Thank you for your service.
There was once a small jetti that shot off Midway Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at the site of the famous Naval battle. I was stationed there in 1981 - 1982. It was called the marine dump. Everything and anything the Naval command disregarded for whatever reason ended up in the marine dump. There were F4 phantom jets. Huge old computers. And things I couldn't identify. The place was off limits and I never gave it a thought. However, there was an older guy, I'll call him Beamer that knew far more than the rest of us. The isoand was going to close for awhile in 1982 and we were all being reassigned. Beamer decided we all needed to through a final farewell and have a great party. BBQ, drinks, beer, all the girls from the nursing school, the whole nine yards. After that party, which was only 5 days out from most of us leaving, Beamer invited me to his private room to have some farewell cocktails of some special stuff he was saving. While drinking that night, he showed me an huge electric smelter he had somehow bought and had flown to the island which he hidep in an old firehouse barracks. Hising such things wasn't hard on Midway. We also had a giant diesel generator capable of lighting up half the island which hw plugged the electric smelter into. Well, turns out ole Beamer was going to the marine dump several times a week a night digging put previous metals from all the old discarded equipment. He peeled off all the titanium from the F4 jets and made bard of it qhen titanium was so valuable it made gold look like tin foil. He smelted hundreds of pounds of gold, platinum and all sorts of other metals and had it all shipped to San Francisco. He had told me he had sold over 6.5 million dollars of the stuff in a 3 and a half year period. And this was 1982. The Navy considered it junk, but he still kept his mouth shut. This is the first time Ive told the story and I'm pretty sure Beamer is no longer with us. But it made me aware from back then all the computer stuff since 1981 was valuable. And I too took notice.
Hurts me in the feels, seeing an old Osborne having to be broken down…
I literally felt the same thing-- when I saw it, I audibly said "Wooooow an Osbourne!!"
@@Soniti1324 OMG, I said that! If you know, you know
I mean he was fixing it, not scrapping it. He says that if you watch the whole video.
It feels almost dystopian seeing people rummage through piles of discarded computer parts rather than extracting precious metals from the ground
This is awesome! Hopefully we can reduce e-waste and force companies to take initiative on making sustainable technology.
THANK YOU. My heart is soothed watching this video :)
4:28 "Jacob"? For shame. At least the voicever and the closed captions are correct.
The new gold rush! If we can see this waste as the valuable asset it really is!!
Some “ewaste” still has value as is.
You had a brief bit in this with a supplier of Crushers can do this cheaper than you suggest in your video.
Just wow 😳 amazing work and one smart Business Idea 👏 excellent
Aus 9% is slightly less at USA15%. That's a huge increase. Double almost . 3:02
Comparing 20 million to 350 million thats a shit ton more by the numbers
Business Insider needs to make more sense. How can one ton of motherboards contain more gold than one ton of mined gold? I'm pretty sure they mean gold ore.
Common sense. Raw gold rock mining versus motherboars weight
@@dertythegrower gay balls
10:35 - Macintosh Plus!
Well done inspiring value based dumpster diving to keep electronics out of landfills. Wade might open an official museum of working computers allowing many to access worldwide to transfer or upgrade antiquated data to newer platforms as a side hustle.
Exporting ewaste is not a eco friendly option when it's burned for metals.
Burning copper wire reduces the value of the wire too. The metals buyers will give you a lower price per kilo if the wires were burnt in a fire. At least thats what happens in western countries, in 3rd world countries they might get the same price.
the smog is recycled into captured gas for fuel
@@dertythegrower rrrriiiiggggghhhhttttt....
"mutant bacteria can now recover gold from electronics" Should have been the thumbnail
5:14 OMG look at the river
Really nice mentality and beautifull project Whish you the best
I brought some electronics to a big electronics shop in Japan and they tried to charge me for them to recycle it. WTF? THAT's why people don't recycle e-waste.
It makes sense for people to charge for it though because it costs them money to provide that service for you. Just like when you have new tires put on your car (in the US) there is a disposal fee for the old ones.
time and fuel cost to take it to a recycle place like these... you probably live in a big city so they dont know how to do it like we do
Is gold really worth it to buy ? In terms of the short term considering taxes and overall cost of upfront purchase then trying to resell when I actually need the liquidity, is physical or gold stocks more worth the cost ? Because it seems to be when people speak of gold their not being specific to the short term or Long term approach to justifying the purchase. Let me know your thoughts , thanks anyone
It's showing crt TVs and electronics which no longer exists. There are plenty of videos on KZhead showing how hard is to extract few grams of gold (if you happen to find a tons of 20 years old electronics cards or chips that happen to have golden plated contacts). Eventually the news here is that there's now a company which has apparently found an environmental friendly way to extract minerals with the help of special kind of bacteria
Oh shit! Is that the Jason (from Mount Baker Mining and Metals)?
Thats pretty cool! However, gold was phased out 10yrs ago in Semiconductormanufacturing so the recycling efficiency will be less and less economical in the coming years.
false
So why is the special formula a secret? Share it with the rest of the world, so everyone can have a go at making it financially feasible.
You've great at recycling old things.
I've success when division for every.
I subscribe to this guy's videos and I love the work he is doing. E-waste is literally throwing away your best and rarest minerals en mass.
Maybe back in the 90s it was lucrative for the individual in his garage. Nowadays you have to do it on an industrial scale to make any real money from it.
Brilliant,and Thanks!For The Education,and You Are Right,Costs could be Saved,by not Shipping,to Other Countries!By Keeping Recycling,within,the Same country!
This might be the most of impressive recycling system I have ever seen. 😊
I was thinking that E-Waste Ben would make a guest appearance, but I do occasionally watch Shark Scrapper, so that’s cool.
Shark Scrapper is an excellent channel to learn the correct way to scrap.
8:42 They use electroplating to extract the copper from the "computer" electrolyte they made. Awesome.
I used to work for a place in Texas called "Round 2"that did all this stuff...
Very cool, Wade! And Mint as well. Good on you
I would hope that the news pick up some of your stories. Sparking innovation for the better! Thank you
Good job
Yooooo I just randomly came across this video, my dad does this as a hobby, he showed me this giant ball of gold he had, it was like a one inch ball of solid gold, I remember being a kid and our family room looked like a meth lab with beakers of sulphuric acid, and green and blue crap, my sister once spilled some on her hand and she was like crying and freaking out and I remember being scared of the fumes because it was right by our computer, we also had piles of computers and sharp circuit boards filling our family room, my sister stubbed her toe once on a stack of circuit boards, I remember my dad had a giant box of old busted flip phones and stuff, let's just say living in a house with a dad who did this as a hobby was really a thing to experience
Hi you have an outlet in Perth Australia?
I'm an investor in Mint Innovation - great to see them mentioned here!
Would love to learn more about what convinced you to invest in them!
I'm so happy to see he's not scrapping the retro/collectable stuff!
Watching this video really gives me hope for a more sustainable future. I'm rooting for Wade Cawley and his team at Mint Innovation to succeed in their mission to recover precious metals from electronics. It's amazing to think about the potential of turning e-waste into valuable resources. Plus, as someone who loves collecting vintage items, it's fascinating to see the intersection of technology and history in this process.
the acids required cost more than the gold yield for home operations
I learned so much!😊
Problem is... the amount of accessible valuables in modern e-waste has become so small, that this business model is going to break down soon. Microwave transformers are wound with aluminium wire, instead of copper. Modern MLCCs (formerly containing palladium) are now 99% worthless. Flip chip IC designs don't contain any gold bond wires. Remaining gold plating is just a nanometer gold flashing.... dozens of examples available. Today there is still enough old stuff being thrown away. But it will end soon.
Human ingenuity is beautiful!