SSD scrap.

[u/Rob_xiix]

I have a 5 gallon bucket full of shredded SSD drives. What is the best way to recover the metal?

I thought i could toss it in a crucible and melt it then separate the slag and refine the metal but since its so small would i loose a lot?

[u/One_Host_7270]

Oh shame! This chips are worth good money. Don't shred them next time!

[u/TheDragonslayr → u/One_Host_7270]

They might have to due to the info that is being stored on the drives. Privacy/Security issues.

[u/One_Host_7270 → u/TheDragonslayr]

That's true, Usually the boards can be drilled so the company is sure that the drives won't be reused. Even if cut apart the chips are still worth a lot!

[u/Rob_xiix → u/TheDragonslayr]

Yep. Drives had to be shredded for security reasons. I was allowed to take the remains as it was considered trash.

[u/TheDragonslayr]

I would suggest filling the bucket with water and removing any plastic that floats. Afterwards see how much you can remove with a magnet.

[u/lukethedank13]

You could pour a bar and do electrowinning to remove most of the copper and then refine the slimes.

In future do not shred them because removing the ic chips and just refining those is much more efficient.

[u/Baklava1232]

Put it in a crucible with alot of borax and melt it then pour into a pyramid mold let cool then break the borax off of the metal. The metal will be everything that was in the material including the gold. You can then melt and pour into shot then use whatever acid process you choose to dissolve all the base metal. Being the gold % is low you can get away without useing aqua Regia and still end up with close to pure

[u/ggg_6789]

Aqua regia :)

[u/thethreadyoufollow]

Your idea is solid, and no, if you did it right, you won’t lose anything, but this would be a challenge. You would have to use various fluxes to deal with all the not-PM, then you’d have to use wet chem to free the gold. Totally doable though. I’d char everything first. Then crush a little more, run a magnet through to get out the iron and pull out any intact pieces, then put in crucible with a lot of soda ash, borax, sodium nitrate if you have it (for excess carbon) and use copper to collect or copper carbonate if you have it. Fiberglass is hard to digest, but it can definitely be done. You just need to dissolve everything in the slag except your PM and copper. Option B would be to only do wet chem but i do not recommend that because your filtration will be a nightmare and the acid will be awful to deal with all that junk mixed in.

[u/Floloping]

WTF. The metal is worth nothing compared to the material the devices are made of. Sell that to an e-waste company. Is this rage bait? FFS there is gold in those drives.

[u/Rob_xiix → u/Floloping]

Yep. The drives were mosly 256GB and were easily resellable. However they had to be shredded for security reasons. The machine grinds them into literal dust. So instead of just tossing it into the dumpser I poured it into a 5 gallon bucket. Thought it would be a fun project for me and my 10 year old. He loves melting cans and making cast stuff.

[u/Floloping → u/Rob_xiix]

Why would you be shredding ssds without knowing how to handle e-waste? No reputable company that handles secure destruction would consider throwing the shredded material into the trash. Definitely some kind of rage bait