CPU Recycling

CPU recycling refers to the refining and recovery of precious metals such as gold, silver, and palladium from chips. In CPU recycling, gold is primarily located at connection points between the chip die and package leads, as well as in gold-plated contacts. Silver is typically found in solder joints, pin coatings, and circuit board traces. Palladium is less common in CPU recycling, though some high-performance chip packaging materials contain this precious metal.

Characteristics of Precious Metal Distribution in CPU Recycling

Large content variations: Older chips (e.g., server CPUs) contain higher gold content. Modern chips often replace gold wires with copper wires to reduce costs, resulting in minimal gold content.

Compared to chips, semiconductor waste (e.g., wafer cutting blue tape) has higher precious metal concentrations.

Complex forms: Precious metals are often combined with copper, tin, and other metals, requiring separation through physical crushing, chemical leaching, and biological techniques. This leads to higher CPU recycling costs.

Economic Viability of CPU Recycling

Large-scale recycling is key to profitability. DONGSHENG has increased sorting efficiency by 90% through intelligent separation. Purifying precious metals through manual CPU recycling incurs high labor costs and significant operational safety risks, making it rarely profitable.