Where To Find Silver ?

Originally Posted by msearl3244

I have been finding a lot of silver in this old telecom stuff I am processing.



In the first picture this is the inside of a antenna tuner and the whole inside is dipped in silver. the scrap yard I go to tested it and told me that.
It still sells as just #2 copper. the whole box is 27 lbs of solid copper.

The next 2 pictures are boards out of these radio controller units in this stuff also. I did find that the board is heavily covered in silver solder, but I have yet to find anything about prices on these boards.
I contacted a buyer on here and he said it was just hard to tell what he could pay for them. They are covered by a 23 lb aluminum heat-sink, so they must get warm...lol

1) This is the copper dipped in silver



2) This is the board with the silver all over it.

3) This is the same board closer up. You can literally see how thick the silver is where I took out the screws.



4) This is the heat sink that is positioned over the board that is covered in silver.



Really thus far the buyers I have checked with have not expressed any interest in the silver boards. The best I have found is low grade boards like TV boards. For that price I will just shuffle them off in a corner and let them sit until I have time to figure out how to process the darn things myself. I do know the builder of these radio controllers went through a lot of hassle and money to protect these boards and cool them.

The silver plated copper is recoverable if you have other high silver content items like contacts solder or sterling. But this is only true for small time refiners. It can be reclaimed in the refining process with little extra coast. Most of the time it is only considered a containment of Cu and like you have been told lowers the value of the Cu. The worlds supply of silver and gold are mostly recovered as Cu containment from Cu mining. So the Cu smelter and refiners are well versed in the process.

In an other post you mentioned this were the antenna connected. This can also be a source for silver. some high end antenna connectors for HAM radios are a solid silver piece. I don't see any reason that there might be the same possibility here. Silver testing solution is your friend. Buy it off ebay if you don't want to of can't make it

The board that you have only has value in the RF devices they should be heavenly gold plated with A BeO white cap on them. They are hard to process at home but good fill material for a refinery. If you have hundreds of pounds than I would save them if not remove the Rf devises to sell and move on.

I wish you lived closer I wold love to buy one of those Cu boxes. I think I will make me one.

Eric