They are gold plated most likely, although I have seen anodized versions that were trying really hard to pretend to be high end gold plated connectors.
As a matter of fact, I have even seen black rhodium or what they call black rhodium connectors.
Any of the high end electronics that were made prior to 2002 are going to have more gold plating than anything after. The price of gold jumped then leaded in 2002, so industry responding by finding more efficient ways to play less gold and get the same benefit. The same goes for car audio equipment. Anything before 1998 usually has more gold associated with it, in car audio components.
I have 4 55 gallon buckets of those particular type of connectors, the yield is okay but on the low end, you have to figure they have far less surface space per base material than something like gold plated pins have. A lot of times the cheaper ones have a tin base which makes them a nightmare to run if you are not aware before, it creates insoluble tin oxide in AR solutions. They are not as clean to run as other types of connecters but should be well worth your time and effort to scrap along with all the other gold connectors. If you look at ebay auctions for gold recovery material, you often times see mixed lot of gold plated connectors that have this type of material in them. You might be better served mixing these up with other types of misc connecters so that you get a better overall price for your lot.
Scott
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