Gold in blood glucose strips.

[Diego7293]

Hi everyone

I just wanted to ask if anyone has ever refined their own gold from blood glucose strips.
I work in a sport science lab as a lab technician and I came across some expired glucose strips which would've gotten chucked out by the previous tech.
I've peeled them down and removed most of the sticky residue and have stored them in a jar for either selling or refining (since i have the chemicals needed to do so).
I know I wouldn't get too much gold out of it (probably a bit less than a gram) but should I try to refine or sell them as they are? I have about 1500 strips.

 

[Tathradj]

Being a Lab Tech you would have the skills to perform
this safely.

 

[Bazz]

Seriously 8)

you need to do a cost Vs return then subtract your effort from the result!!!!!!

Sounds like a Todd Hoffman idea, lets call it Buckland Mk 2

just saying!!

 

[B5MECH]

I've had a go at electronics scrap and if the stuff still sells on ebay you'll get more money selling for to someone else refining
A kilo would sell but there is more gold in a guild plate and there isn't much in them either found out the hard way unless you can get kilos regularly it's only good for experimental fun :lol: :lol: :lol: with a tiny gold bead to make you smile at the end
I've seen somewhere a company scrapper that buys the scrap but thought the price was a bit sad can't remember who
If your going to do it I'd stock pile a couple of kilos before I'd start

 

[Diego7293]

Yeah I think I might do it myself just for fun but maybe after a bit more time. I reckon I'll wait until I fill the jar and i'll decide then. Every semester a bunch get used so I'll just keep stockpiling over time.

If I end up refining them myself I'll post the results on here!

 

[B5MECH]

Well if your going to do it start stockpiling, get all gold plated circuit boards, phones and computer bits etc.....
Problem is I didn't do enough the first time, got my gold powder melted it down and damn it shrunk :lol: :lol: :lol: and because it was so little I lost some in the flux cause the bead wasn't heavy enough to suck it all in
Main thing is if you can get access to the chemicals cheap enough, only way I got my nitric was on pick up due to the ridiculous freight price

 

[Diego7293]

Well if your going to do it start stockpiling, get all gold plated circuit boards, phones and computer bits etc.....
Problem is I didn't do enough the first time, got my gold powder melted it down and damn it shrunk :lol: :lol: :lol: and because it was so little I lost some in the flux cause the bead wasn't heavy enough to suck it all in
Main thing is if you can get access to the chemicals cheap enough, only way I got my nitric was on pick up due to the ridiculous freight price

Yeah I've been compiling some other e-waste as well as the glucose strips but I reckon it'd be more worthwhile to not get ahead of myself and collect for longer. The chemicals won't be a problem as I've already got most of them in storage.
If i'd known about gold in electronics sooner I could have hoarded all the computers my work was throwing away at the end of 2015 such a waste!

 

[GaryO]

It was all the go about 12 months back but has seemed to have died of a bit . I still have a heap of computer ram chips i haven't got around to selling yet but you need about 100 from memory to make a gram , so thats part of the reason its died down. There was a particular intel CPU chip which is a chip about 75mm square contained a bit over a gram each but because they are from early day computers they are hard to find .. they were where the money was

 

[Phoenix76]

Ahhh Diego, if only. Yeah we are all good at knowing what we should have done, but that's how it is.

I don't have any figures on the amount of gold on those strips. I have lots and lots of them, my wife is a diabetic so an unending supply. From my own research, it is reckoned that gold plated fingers from computer boards contain .006 grams of gold per gram of close cut fingers. So that is 6g of gold per kilo of fingers. Okay, at today,s prices, that 6g would equal about $300.

In the electronic recycling game it's all about volume. Apart from CPU's, the best value comes from gold platted pins, and computers and associated gear are full of pins. Even the plugs on telephone cable has them. Based on the above, pins contain .0088 grams per kilo of pins. So a kilo of pins would return approx $440.

Gold is where you find it. I get it out of computers, telecommunications stuff, even cars. The air bag set ups have gold pins in the end of them where they connect to the loom. Telecommunications gear is generally high quality, especially if you ever come across and old stuff. The control box on internet satellite dishes have two boards and one side of each is basically all plated. Don't get many, but never pass them up. Even the control box itself is made from zinc, which is worth about the same as aluminium, so no waste there.

But you make a good point about collecting for longer before you get into processing. At least make your time and trouble worthwhile. To be honest, my current collection is probably valued at around $5k. The pins and other plated metal I will process in a sulphuric acid cell, very easy to set up and works a treat. From there you still have to move to AR to do your final refining. On my trip to Brisbane next week I will pick up a new supply of Sulphric. I've got nearly 4k of pins at the moment so that's worth around $1700. Now that is worth the time and effort. Add to that all my other GP metal bits, yeah time to refine.

Just for interest sake, I'm retired and I do a lot of recycling in all that spare time I've got .Also keeps me fit. But just as a warning to any other would be chemists out there, please remember, playing with the acids required to do refining is bloody dangerous. I can explain to anyone the processes to do this refining, but I won't. I would not like to put my name to anyone's injuries or death. Am I sounding a bit over the top? Well that's good, because it's meant to be. I'm sure Diego would agree with me.

Anyway, Cheers all
Bill

 

[Diego7293]

Ahhh Diego, if only. Yeah we are all good at knowing what we should have done, but that's how it is.

I don't have any figures on the amount of gold on those strips. I have lots and lots of them, my wife is a diabetic so an unending supply. From my own research, it is reckoned that gold plated fingers from computer boards contain .006 grams of gold per gram of close cut fingers. So that is 6g of gold per kilo of fingers. Okay, at today,s prices, that 6g would equal about $300.

In the electronic recycling game it's all about volume. Apart from CPU's, the best value comes from gold platted pins, and computers and associated gear are full of pins. Even the plugs on telephone cable has them. Based on the above, pins contain .0088 grams per kilo of pins. So a kilo of pins would return approx $440.

Gold is where you find it. I get it out of computers, telecommunications stuff, even cars. The air bag set ups have gold pins in the end of them where they connect to the loom. Telecommunications gear is generally high quality, especially if you ever come across and old stuff. The control box on internet satellite dishes have two boards and one side of each is basically all plated. Don't get many, but never pass them up. Even the control box itself is made from zinc, which is worth about the same as aluminium, so no waste there.

But you make a good point about collecting for longer before you get into processing. At least make your time and trouble worthwhile. To be honest, my current collection is probably valued at around $5k. The pins and other plated metal I will process in a sulphuric acid cell, very easy to set up and works a treat. From there you still have to move to AR to do your final refining. On my trip to Brisbane next week I will pick up a new supply of Sulphric. I've got nearly 4k of pins at the moment so that's worth around $1700. Now that is worth the time and effort. Add to that all my other GP metal bits, yeah time to refine.

Just for interest sake, I'm retired and I do a lot of recycling in all that spare time I've got .Also keeps me fit. But just as a warning to any other would be chemists out there, please remember, playing with the acids required to do refining is bloody dangerous. I can explain to anyone the processes to do this refining, but I won't. I would not like to put my name to anyone's injuries or death. Am I sounding a bit over the top? Well that's good, because it's meant to be. I'm sure Diego would agree with me.

Anyway, Cheers all
Bill

Yeah I think i read somewhere that each strip has something like 0.0009 grams of gold on it so you'd need a massive amount for a decent sized nugget. And I dont think it's being over the top, I agree with you 100%, refining the gold yourself can be a dangerous task so lots of research must be done. Something I can do over time while I collect.
I'm surprised about being able to find gold in all those other places. I'll keep those in mind when I'm out and about and see anything laying around.
It's all just for fun with a decent cash return for the time spent on it but like you said, only if the time is taken to collect a decent amount of gold bearing electronics.
Thanks for all that info Bill!