This document provides instructions for extracting gold from electronic waste in a 7-step process. Step 1 involves selecting gold-plated materials to be recovered from electronics. Step 2 uses a chemical bath of muriatic acid and hydrogen peroxide to dissolve the materials. Step 3 filters out gold foils. Step 4 places the foils in another chemical bath. Step 5 filters again. Step 6 adds sodium metabisulfate to recover pure brown gold. Step 7 heats the gold powder until melted into a pure 24-karat nugget. The process yields 1.5g of gold from 500g of starting materials, and could profitably extract gold from city junkyards.

1. GOLD EXTRACTION
Experiment

2. ___________________________________________
Gold

3. o This experiment is very useful because you can turn the electronic junk into money.
- cleaner environment

4. Safety Equipment
• Breathing mask
• Safety Glasses
• Rubber Gloves

5. Equipment
• Coffee filters
• Filter holder
• Scale (grams)
• Glass lubware
• Pipette
• Glass baker
• Plastic bucket

6. Chemicals
• Sodium hypochlorate 6% (NaClo)
• Muriatic Acid 34% (HCl)
• Hydrogen Peroxide 3% (H2O2)
• Sodium Meta Bisulfate (Na2S2O7)
*(Some of these chemicals can be replaced if you can’t
find them but you have to ask for advice from an expert)

7. STEP 1: SELECTING MATERIALS TO BE RECOVERED
• Gold plated materials can be found on any electronic parts.
• They need to be as clean as possible.

8. STEP 2: FIRST CHEMICAL BATH
TOOLS
• PLASTIC BUCKET
• MURIATIC ACID
• HYDROGEN PEROXIDE
• At first, place the materials into the
bucket. Add enough Muriatic acid
to cover 1cm above the materials.

9. • AFTER THAT, THE MIXTURE WILL START TO
BUBBLE AND THE MATERIALS WILL BEGIN TO
DISSOLVE. THIS PROCESS CAN TAKE UP TO
50 HOURS.
• To activate the solution, add Hydrogen peroxide in 2:1
ratio
(two parts muriatic acid to one part hydrogen peroxide)

10. STEP 3: FILTERING THE GOLD FOILS
Items
• Coffee filters
• Filter holder
• Glass container
o Pour the final solution into the glass container using the
coffee filter to catch any foils that are floating on the
solution.

11. STEP 4: SECOND CHEMICAL BATH
ITEMS
• GLASS BAKER
• RECOVERED FOILS
• MURIATIC ACID
• SODIUM HYPOCHLORATE
o ADD ENOUGH MURIATIC ACID TO COVER
THE FOILS. USING A PIPETTE ADD SODIUM
HYPOCHLORATE UNTIL THE FOILS HAVE
DISSOLVED. THE RESULT SHOULD BE
YELLOW SOLUTION.
(required in order to reach a higher level of
purity)

12. Step 5: Filtering
 After the dissolving, it’s normal to
notice a small amount of garbage.You
need to filter again with the coffee
filters to get a clear solution.

13. STEP 6: GOLD RECOVERING
o With the plastic spoon add small amounts of sodium meta bisulfate to the solution. The gold in the mixture
should turn brown in the bottom of the beaker. It will take about 5 hours for the gold to completely settle and
the solution should be clear.
Items
• Plastic spoon
• Sodium Meta Bisulfate

14. STEP 7: MELTING
o You should dry the gold until it
becomes powder. Put that powder
into fire brick and heat it with a
torch until it becomes glassy. Then
the gold needs to cool.
The end result of the experiment is pure 24karat gold.

15. RESULT AND RESEARCH
Starting gold-plated materials Final product (24k gold)
500g 1,5g
Result from my
experiment
Informations based on materials founded in the local
city junkyardElectronics Gold-plated
parts
Possible final
product
Market value
2tons 5% (100kg) 300g 12.000€
Using this project every city can recover gold from the junkyards
and with the money they will invest in a lot of things to improve
our living.