Hydrometallurgy 82 (2006) 48 53

www.elsevier.com/locate/hydromet

A green technology for recovery of gold from non-metallic

secondary sources
S. Syed
Corrosion Research Group, Atomic Energy Research Institute, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, P.O. Box 6086,
Riyadh-11442, Saudi Arabia
Received 23 August 2005; received in revised form 4 January 2006; accepted 19 January 2006
Available online 3 March 2006

Abstract
A process for the recovery of gold from processed gold-plated printed circuit boards, gold-coated bangles and gold-coated
mirrors is described. It is based on heating the scrap material along with an eco-friendly or green reagent, 20% (v / v) formic
acid solution to boiling temperature to separate the inorganic component from epoxy resin in gold-coated mirrors. Dissolution of
base metals is affected using a strong oxidizing agent, 20%(w / v) potassium persulphate, which is also eco-friendly or green;
and heating to boiling temperature. Recovery of gold is achieved by melting. The recovery efficiency is on par with the cyanidation
process. The process can be scaled up and adopted by all categories of industries.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Gold; Secondary sources; Non-metallic; Eco-friendly reagents; Peeling

1. Introduction
Gold coating is one of the important industries
encompassing many walks of human life ranging from
household to hi-tech materials such as mirrors, bangles,
catalysts, communication and electronic applications
(Delfini et al., 2000; Blair, 1999). Increasing demand for
gold in current industrial applications such as electronic
devices and catalysts, and its high cost, makes it crucial
to recover the gold from the inevitably increasing waste
products (Baba, 1987).
During the last three decades, substantial quantities
of gold have been used by the electronic industry in
view of its excellent electrical conductivity and
Tel.: +966 1 4883555; fax: +966 1 4813887.
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resistance to corrosion. This ensures high reliability in

printed circuits, which over a period of time gets
obsolete and redundant. Thus the gold component has
become a candidate for recovery (Li, 1998; Khalemskii
et al., 1998; Zhao et al., 1999; Leao and Ciminelli,
2000). The process of recovery makes sense only if the
cost of recovery is much less than the value of the
precious metal. Besides, restrictions imposed on waste
disposal and stringent environmental regulations demand eco-friendly technologies.
The technologies currently available for the recovery
of gold include mechanical (Rhee et al., 1995), pyrometallurgical (Li, 1998), hydrometallurgical (Novoselov
and Peshchevitskii, 1998), electrochemical (Brandon et
al., 1987) and biotechnological (Pethkar and Paknikar,
1998) processes. In the present context, hydrometallurgical methods are in great demand as the recovery and

S. Syed / Hydrometallurgy 82 (2006) 4853

recycling approach can easily be adopted which not

only results in an overall economic benefit to the
manufacturer, but also meets increasing demands of
ecological considerations.
Various types of gold metal scraps available are
presented in Table 1 that include scraps with metallic
and non-metallic substrates. The latter can further be
classified into organic, inorganic and their combinations. In the present study, processed gold-plated printed
circuit boards (GPCB) have an organic substrate; while
gold-coated glass bangles (GCGB) have a typical
inorganic (glass) substrate. Gold-coated mirror (GCM)
consists of both glass (inorganic) and a coating of epoxy
resin (organic polymer).
Hydrometallurgical processes for gold recovery from
secondary sources generally involve three stages:
pretreatment, recovery and refining (Fig. 1). Among
these, recovery is an important step wherein gold is
retained in the elemental state a process called
peeling. Alternatively, dissolution of gold into an ionic
state is affected by leaching process.
Leaching is commonly done by using a variety of
chemicals which include nitric acid (Niederkorn and
Huszar, 1984), mixtures of nitric, hydrochloric and
sulphuric acids (Krupkowa et al., 1987), sulphuric acid,
nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide (Kristofova and
Karnik, 1996), aqua-regia (Lee et al., 1997), ferric
chloride (Hanna, 1995), thiourea (Sheng and Etsell,
1998; Becker et al., 1983), potassium iso-cyanate
(Khalemskii et al., 1998), potassium iodide and iodine
(Leibovitz, 1998), iodidenitrite mixture (Novoselov
and Peshchevitskii, 1998), thiosulphate (Zhao et al.,
1999) and cyanides (Leao and Ciminelli, 2000).
Compared to cyanide, thiourea is less toxic and
dissolves gold and silver at faster rates. But thiourea is
regarded as carcinogenic and sensitive to the presence of
such base metals as copper, lead, zinc, arsenic and
antimony (Yavuz and Ziyadanogullari, 2000), which are
invariably present in various secondary sources used for
gold recovery.
Table 1
Classification of gold containing secondary sources
Metallic sources

Non-metallic sources

Scrap jewellery
Alloy scrap
Low grade bench scrap
Contact pins and tips
Plated rejected components
Copper and lead anode slime

Porcelain scrap
Glass bangles
Carbon and filter
Printed circuit boards
Ion exchange resins
I.C. ceramic
Mirrors
Spent catalysts

The list is only representative.

49
Hydrometallurgy

Pretreatment

Extraction

Refining

crushing

product treatment

solvent extraction

washing

peeling

chemical treatment

drying

dissolution

electrolysis

fractionation

concentration

adsorption

incineration

Fig. 1. Three stages in hydrometallurgy and different processes in each

stage.

Leaching gold with a copper catalysed ammoniacal

thiosulphate solution has been extensively studied and
developed in recent years. But there is not much work
reported on the recovery of gold from thiosulphate
solution. Attempts have been initiated on this problem,
which involves cementation with zinc dust or iron
powder and adsorption on carbon; however, a number
of problems still remain to be solved (Zhao et al.,
1999).
At present, the recovery of gold from secondary
sources in developing countries like India is done on a
small scale. The cyanide leaching process commonly
adopted in industrialized countries cannot be employed
in India due to the high risk of exposure to the toxic
chemical. Thus, there is a need for the development of
an appropriate technology for gold recovery from scrap
material, which should have salient features like
selectivity, high recovery, economical and eco-friendly even when operated under small-scale conditions.
This paper reports the use of two new reagents
potassium persulphate and formic acid, which overcome
the serious toxicity problem, associated with the
cyanidation process. These reagents are cheap and the
degradation products sulphate and carbon dioxide
are harmless to the eco-system. One of the advantages of
persulphate is its selective dissolution of copper, silver,
nickel which are part of GPCB and GCM scrap
materials. The precious metal can be recovered by
filtration and further subjected to melting to recover
pure gold. The formic acid used to peel off the epoxy
resin from the mirror has the unique features of
selectivity, efficiency, economy and eco-friendly.
2. Materials and methods
The processed gold printed circuit board contained
Cu, Ni and Au {source: Toyama Electric Ltd.,

50

S. Syed / Hydrometallurgy 82 (2006) 4853

Bangalore, India}. Gold-coated mirror {source: Yousuff

Mirror Industries, Bangalore, India} and gold-coated
glass bangle scrap {source: Kohinoor Glass Bangle
Industry (P) Ltd., Ferozabad, India} were procured.
2.1. Reagents
Formic acid (SDS, India) and potassium persulphate
(BDH, India) were of analytical reagent grade. The
chemicals used in small-scale pilot plant were of
commercial grade.
2.2. Peeling of epoxy resin from GCM
Peeling of epoxy resin from gold-coated mirror of
various dimensions and shapes ranging from 10 to
40 cm2 was carried out in a 500 ml glass beaker
containing aqueous 20% (v / v) formic acid solution in
sufficient quantity to dip completely the scrap pieces
approximately 2 kg. GCM scrap can be treated in 1 l of
20% (v / v) formic acid.
The solution containing GCM scrap was boiled for
about 10min when epoxy resin film peels off, floats on
the surface and is skimmed off. Occasional stirring helps
in increasing the efficiency of the peeling process. The
solution is finally drained, washed with water and
subjected to persulphate treatment.
2.3. Peeling of gold
Recovery of gold from GPCB, GCGB and GCM was
carried out in a glass beaker containing 20% (w / v)
aqueous potassium persulphate. Approximately 3 kg
GPCB scrap can be treated in 1l of 20% (w / v) aqueous
potassium persulphate. The solution was boiled for
about 20 min when peeled gold settled as sludge and was
separated by simple filtration process. This was further
subjected to melting to recover pure gold. From the
filtrate, metals like copper, nickel and even silver could
Table 2
Effect of formic acid concentration at B. pt. on the removal of epoxy
resin from gold-coated mirror scrap (quantity of scrap (50 g))
Formic acid concentration (% v / v)

Peeling time (min)

5
10
20
30
40
50
70
90

Incomplete
30
10
8
6
1
0.5
0.3

Table 3
Effect of persulphate concentration at B. pt. on the peeling process of
gold films
Concentration of potassium persulphate (% w / v) Peeling time (min)
2
5
10
20
30
40
50

Incomplete
80 a
30
25
20
b
b

Quantity of scrap (50g).

a
Poor reproducibility.
b
Erratic results.

be recovered depending on the composition of the

GPCB.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Selective leaching with persulphate ion
The persulphate ion S2O82 is one of the strongest
oxidizing agents; its standard redox potential has been
estimated to be 2.01 V vs. NHE in aqueous solution
(Latimer, 1952). Under mild conditions, thermal,
photochemical or radiolytic decomposition of this
bivalent ion (S2O82) yields radical anion SO4 that
appears to be very effective electron-transfer oxidizing
agent. Thermodynamic calculations give the following
values of standard redox potentials for the persulphate
system (Bard et al., 1985).

S2 O2
8 2e

0
2SO2
4 E 1:96V

S2 O2
8 2e 2H

2HSO4 E 0 2:08V

Being a powerful oxidizing agent, persulphate has

the tendency to dissolve all base metals such as copper,
nickel, silver, etc. Moreover, the presence of small

Table 4
Effect of temperature on peeling process time
Temperature (C)

Peeling time (min)

Room temp. 25 2
40
60
80
Boiling temp.

1500
260
60
35
20

20% (w / v) persulphate concentration.

Quantity of scrap (50g).

S. Syed / Hydrometallurgy 82 (2006) 4853

amounts of ions of silver, copper and iron acts as

electron carriers and catalyses the oxidation process of
base metals (Bard et al., 1985). Gold, being a noble
metal, does not undergo dissolution. This property
makes persulphate ion a selective reagent.
Under operating conditions, due to an undefined
mechanism, persulphate helps to weaken the bondage
between gold and the non-metallic substrate and
consequently the gold gets peeled off easily. Due to
the high density of gold, separation can be achieved by
simple filtration process. Thus, the whole process makes
gold recovery very simple and economical.
To measure the efficiency of the reagent, the GPCB
after persulphate treatment was subjected to cyanide
leaching when the recovery of gold was found to be
b 0.2%. Thus, it is demonstrated that the persulphate

51

reagent is as efficient as cyanide to recover gold from

secondary sources.
3.2. Optimization of reagent concentrations
3.2.1. Formic acid
Table 2 shows the effect of formic acid concentration
on the peeling process of epoxy resin from GCM scrap.
Increasing the concentration of formic acid reduces the
time needed to complete the peeling process. The
indicated time range is within the reasonable limits for
use in an industrial plant. The optimum concentration,
which gave the reasonable time of 10min, is 20% (v / v).
Higher concentrations of formic acid N 50% (v / v) gave
pungent odour and poses a safety problem to the
workers.

GCM (50kg)

Broken into small

pieces

Washing

20 % (v/v) formic acid

Heat to boil
temperature

GPCB (50 kg)

Skimming
Crushing

Water

Water

Washing

20 % (w/v) aqueous
potassium persulphate
Sulphate salts
recovery

Heated to boiling

Filtration
Water

GCGB (50 kg)

Base metal
recovery

Washing

Drying

Borax + pinch of KNO3

Melting

Gold 99.5 %
(7.6 g)

Fig. 2. Flow sheet of gold recovery from gold-plated printed circuit boards (GPCB), gold-coated glass bangles (GCGB) and gold-coated mirrors
(GCM).

52

S. Syed / Hydrometallurgy 82 (2006) 4853

3.2.2. Potassium persulphate

The effect of persulphate concentration on the
operation time was studied. The results in Table 3
indicate that increasing the concentration of potassium
persulphate reduced the operating time. The optimum
concentration of the persulphate is 20% (w / v), considering its cost and an operating time of 20 min which is
acceptable from the industrial operating point of view.
3.3. Effect of temperature
3.3.1. Formic acid
The effect of temperature on peeling of epoxy resin
was studied using 20% (v / v) formic acid. It was
observed that the peeling process, which took about 20 h
at room temperature, was reduced to 10 min at boiling
temperature. Hence the boiling temperature was chosen
for the industrial operation.
3.3.2. Potassium persulphate
A systematic study was carried out to establish the
effect of temperature on peeling of gold keeping a
constant persulphate concentration. The results presented in Table 4 indicate that the peeling of gold takes
very long time at room temperature (25 20C) while at
boiling temperature the peeling process was complete
within about 20 min. Hence, the boiling temperature is
recommended for routine industrial process.
3.4. Pilot plant
The process has been further scaled up in a small
pilot plant consisting of 100l stainless steel vessel fitted
with electrical coils to maintain, boiling temperature. At
the bottom of the vessel a mesh was provided to hold the
films; stirring was accomplished by injecting air from
the bottom, which also assisted in the separation of
epoxy resin from the gold-coated mirrors. The epoxy
resin, which floated on the surface, was skimmed
periodically. The hoisting apparatus raises the scrap
residue once the treatment was finished allowing the
gold film to settle. The sediment was rinsed with water,
filtered and transferred to melting crucible. The
treatment time (20 min) of the pilot plant was in
conformity with that observed in the laboratory. It is
possible with this batch pilot plant to process about
50kg of GPCB or 100 kg of GCM or GCGB at a time for
the recovery of pure gold. The scheme of operation is
presented in Fig. 2. The results presented in Table 5
indicate that the recovery of gold from scrap by the
present process is on par with the cyanidation process.
Hence, it can be inferred that formic acid and

Table 5
Recovery of gold from gold-plated printed circuit board (GPCB), goldcoated mirrors (GCM) and gold-coated glass bangle (GCGB) in a pilot
plant
Sample Quantity of scrap Quantity of Au
(kg)
recovered (g)

Mean a recovery
(%)

GPCB

98.0
97.3
98.1
97.2
98.3
98.1
98.2
97.4
98.4

10
20
30
GCM 10
20
30
GCGB 10
20
30

0.93
1.89
2.82
0.41
0.83
1.11
0.18
0.34
0.45

20% (w / v) potassium persulphate.

Boiling temperature.
a
With reference to cyanidation process.

persulphate as reagents for gold recovery can replace

the cyanide process.
4. Conclusions
Laboratory investigations were carried out on the
application of a hydrometallurgical method using the
commonly available and cheap reagents formic acid and
potassium persulphate for the recovery of gold from
processed gold-plated printed circuit boards, goldcoated bangles and gold-coated mirror. Sodium or
ammonium persulphate can be used instead of potassium persulphate. The process comprised of (1) removal
of epoxy resin in the case of gold-coated mirrors, (2)
dissolution of base metals and (3) peeling of gold.
The process is simple and cost effective and can be
applied to the treatment of various feed materials, but
the most suitable scrap is gold-plated circuit boards
and those containing low levels of base metals that
consume persulphate. A part of the cost of persulphate
may be recovered from the sale of potassium, sodium
or ammonium sulphate by-product. The recovery of
base metals as by-products from the sulphate filtrate
is also possible by chemical and electrochemical
methods.
The optimum reagent conditions are 20% (v / v)
formic acid and 20% (w / v) persulphate at boiling
temperatures. Formic acid and potassium persulphate
are non-toxic and do not pollute the environment. Even
their degradation products like CO2 and H2O and
potassium sulphate are eco-friendly. Thus, this
process should be readily adopted as a simple and
green technology for the recovery of gold from all
types of scraps.

S. Syed / Hydrometallurgy 82 (2006) 4853

Acknowledgements
The author thanks M/s Toyama Electric Ltd.,
Bangalore, India, M/s Yousuff Mirror Industries,
Bangalore, India and M/s Kohinoor Glass Bangle
Industry (P) Ltd. Ferozabad, India, for providing sample
of processed gold-plated printed circuit boards, goldcoated mirror scrap and gold-coated glass bangle.
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