[geeks] gold recovery from certain motherboards?

[Patrick Giagnocavo]

Rick Hamell wrote:
>> Well, the way it's done in third-world recycling operations is smash
>> everything with a hammer, burn it all in an old oil drum, collect the
>> molten metal from the bottom, and poison everyone in the vicinity with
>> toxic fumes and heavy metals.  Can't say I recommend it.
>>
>> I'm really not sure it's the kind of thing you can practically and
>> safely do at home without investing a lot more money than you'll make
>> from doing it.
> 
> I've seen it done two ways. One was with a homemade smelter (above oil
> drum) with an exhaust hood.
> 
> The other way was to use a sharp knife to physically cut the traces out
> then in a smaller smelter setup heated it up and skimmed the top layer
> off until just gold was left.
> 

What about using aqua regia I wonder?  Anyone have any experience with
that?  Could I just pour the aqua regia over the traces, then
precipitate it out later?

--Patrick