How to recycle platinum from old computer hard drives

Platinum is well-known to be a precious metal, but what is not so well known is that small quantities of it are found in many electronic devices, including some hard drives. When people find this out they think that they could make money by recycling platinum from old hard drives.

Before you go prizing open your devices with thoughts of a get-rich-quick scheme though, bear in mind that very little platinum is in each hard drive, and it is difficult to get out.

The price of platinum

Platinum is a rare metal. Silver-white in colour it is a byproduct from mining nickel and copper.

Like all precious metals, the price of platinum goes up and down. It is affected by market conditions, demand, buyer speculation and current events. In December 2018, it was worth just under $800 (roughly £630) an ounce

You can buy a hard disk drive for around £40. The manufacturer needs to make a profit from this after he has purchased the components that make up the drive, and the retailer has to makes his profit on the sale. The maths are simple: if platinum costs $800 an ounce and a disk drive costs around £40 including profit margins, there cannot be much platinum in the hard drive.

If you have a few hundred disk drives, it may be worth extracting the platinum from them to salvage the metal for recycling, but this is better done by an IT recycling company.

There is also gold in a computer, which is currently worth even more than platinum. IT recyclers can extract gold from the motherboard, but again only in small amounts. On a less valuable note, there are also silver, nickel and zinc in computers.

How to extract platinum from hard drives

The platinum on hard drives is on the platters, with trace amounts on the circuit board components. Solid state or SSD drives do not contain platinum.

Hard drive platters look like silver coloured disks when removed from the drive. The platinum is in the disk coating to enhance the magnetic properties of the platter. Disk drives are similar to old cassette and VHS tapes in that the data on them is recorded magnetically.

The platinum in the layer is mixed with other substances. The challenge of extracting the platinum is to first remove the layer and secondly separate the platinum from other chemicals.

Unless you have specialist chemicals and know what you are doing, it is very difficult for someone other than a skilled IT asset disposal company to extract platinum. You need first to separate the extremely thin layer on top of the platter. The best way to do this is to dissolve the layer, which requires an electrolyte, zinc and other chemicals. You also need a five-volt current.

One amateur experimenter who tried this found that after 50 hours, a few crystals were extracted, but he did not have the equipment to test whether it was pure platinum or not.

The chemical solution needed to extract platinum is corrosive. No detailed instructions are available, as in non-experienced hands, trying to extract platinum from hard drives is extremely dangerous. You need protective clothing and experience with corrosive chemicals.

The money spent on buying the equipment and chemicals needed compared to the value of the tiny amount of platinum you are likely to extract, makes the whole process uneconomical. It costs more to extract than you can sell the platinum for. Plus, if it became known that you were trying to extract platinum in your garage or kitchen, you might expect a visit from the health and safety inspectors.

Another issue is that not all hard drives contain platinum, as some manufacturers use alternative formulations for their platter layers.

Leave it to the professional IT disposal companies

IT recycling companies collect old computers in bulk. If the computer is repairable, they will restore it and sell it on the second-hand computer market. Otherwise, they can extract the metals ready for recycling. There is more metal content in a desktop computer than a laptop. Metals are found in the case, hard drives, motherboard CPUs, power supply, PCIs and RAM.

A desktop computer is easier to dismantle than a laptop. Aluminium will be found below the cooling fan, copper is in the power supply motor, and in the CUP location gold is found. All three metals can easily be sold as scrap ready for recycling.

As has previously been noted, it is also possible to extract platinum from hard drives, but the small amount you can make from one computer may not justify the time spent.

Is it cost effective?

A report in the Journal of Science & Technology claimed that extracting metals from electronic waste is 13 times cheaper than extracting gold or copper from mines. However, this study was made in China where the government subsidises the extraction process.

In Britain, it will not be as high as 13 times, but safe computer disposal companies do find it cost effective to sell metals from old computers.

In early 2018, computer manufacturer Dell collaborated with Nikki Reed, an actress and activist, to produce her limited edition jewellery made from the gold recovered from old Dell computers. It is unlikely that anyone has made platinum jewellery from recycled disk drive platinum. Dell says that since 2012, it has turned more than 50 million pounds of waste products from computers into new recycled products.

Electronics recycling and precious metal recovery prevent electronic waste going into landfill. There are some components of computers that are toxic and these can pollute the land, which makes it important not to simply throw computers away.

E-waste is a rich source of precious metals. It has been estimated that worldwide each year, 320 tons of gold and 7,500 tons of silver are used in new electronic products. There are no published figures for platinum use, but there is far less of it used than other metals.

All businesses should use trusted providers of secure IT disposals to dispose of their old equipment. More people need to be aware of how e-waste recycling is an environmental issue that helps save precious natural mineral resources.