Mining Gold From Computers: Can You Make Money?

September 30, 2023

Every time you throw away or recycle a cell phone, computer, or any piece of electronics you’re throwing away gold. Gold is an efficient conductor of electricity and does not corrode, therefore it is used in virtually every piece of electronics. You can extract the gold using products you likely already have in your home, but is mining gold from computers profitable?

With gold selling for over $1,848 per troy ounce, old electronics may seem like an untapped gold mine. You may suddenly have visions of gaining fortunes from that unused pile of computers in the corner of your basement. Unfortunately, the following facts suggest mining gold from computers may not be worth the trouble.

Amount Of Material Required

You may need a ton of circuit boards. Literally. For every ton (2000 pounds) of desktop PC circuit boards, one could extract approximately 5 troy ounces of gold yielding $9,240 of revenue.

Storage Needed

One may need a space to store the vast amount of electronic material needed to make the venture profitable. Unless you have such a space, renting one would cut into your profits. Also, you’ll need some heavy-duty chemicals to do the extraction, so your storage space needs to be suitable for storing chemicals as well.

Dangerous

The process of extracting gold from electronics gives off toxic fumes you don’t want anyone to inhale. Additionally, hazardous waste is produced that can be dangerous to your health if not handled correctly. You’d need a mask and safety gear.

Time-Consuming

Finding enough material to mine a significant amount of gold will take a lot of time and effort. Additionally, the time needed to extract the gold from the amount of electronics will take the average person months or even years. It’s not easy money.

Waste Disposal

You can’t just take the waste to the dump. Once you’ve extracted the gold, you’ll have hazardous waste and electronic parts you have to dispose of. This is not only inconvenient but will also likely reduce profitability.

Legal Implications

If the correct disposal procedures are not followed for the disposal of hazardous waste, you could find yourself with fines, jail time, or both.

While every piece of electronics contains some amount of gold, for the reasons listed above mining gold from computers would take an enormous amount of time and energy to make any amount of money. It may be a fun science experiment, but that’s about it.

How about you, Clever Friends, have you ever tried extracting gold from electronics?

Bonus Reading

If you’re looking for ways to earn extra money that are a bit easier to implement consider checking out Dollar Sanity’s article on side hustles. It has some good ideas. Finally, if you want to make some easy money from gold, you could just sell your jewelry. Mighty Bargain Hunter has a good article on that topic.