PRECIOUS METALS
They say your body is worth no more than $25 when it's reduced to its basic chemical components. But what about your computer or cell phone?
Because of their unique electrochemical qualities, precious metals are widely used in circuit boards, microprocessors, and even telephone keypads. Last year, Rhode Island-based Metech International, a subsidiary of the Swedish giant Trelleborg, melted down 2,500-plus tons of manufacturing scrap and obsolete tech to get at that mother lode. While gold, silver, palladium, and (sometimes) copper are the only payable metals, Metech tries to sell everything it recovers. Recycled plastic screens, for example, are used to fill potholes.
But don't expect Metech to pick up those digital doorstops gathering dust in your attic. The reclamation process is so expensive and complex that Metech works only in bulk, and charges clients – generally school systems and corporations – to haul away and process the equipment in an environmentally sound manner. And unless you're comfortable working with 3,000-degree heat and electrolytic extraction of precious metals, don't try melting your old PC for pocket change. Just take comfort in the fact that your body is still worth more than that old 486. By a few bucks.
| Gold| Silver| Palladium| Total
| 486 PC| 0.015 oz./$4.39 | 0.066 oz./$0.33 | 0.007 oz./$2.29 | $7.01
| Older external modem| 0.006 oz./$1.67 | 0.009 oz./$0.04 | 0.0 oz./$0.00 | $1.71
| Flip-style cell phone| 0.001 oz./$0.30 | 0.004 oz./$0.02 | 0.0009 oz./$0.31 | $0.63
| 586 microprocessor, with exposed gold| 0.002 oz./$0.50 | 0.014 oz./$0.07 | 0.0009 oz./$0.31 | $0.88
Metech: metech-arm.com.
All weights in troy ounces (14.583 ounces per pound).
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