Precious Metal Recovery from Waste Printed Circuit Boards: Overview

Interested in the latest findings from REMADE's exploratory project on precious metal recovery? Virginia Tech's Wencai Zhang shares the most up-to-date information in this project webinar.

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are an essential component of modern electronic equipment and are one of the more promising e-waste sources of precious metals. For example, typical PC motherboards contain 566 ppm gold, 639 ppm silver, and 124 ppm palladium – two of which (gold and palladium) are more than an order of magnitude above typical economic ore grades. A considerable amount of research has been conducted by researchers and engineers to develop efficient methods and flowsheets for precious metal recovery from PCBs. In this webinar, a comprehensive overview of the existing recovery methods and flowsheets is presented, and the advantages and disadvantages of each method and flowsheet is evaluated. Moreover, research findings from a newly launched exploratory project funded by REMADE about precious metal recovery from PCBs are presented.