For the modern-day prospector the gold isn’t in them thar hills anymore, but it is in them thar flip phones, as this illuminating tutorial from Josehf Lloyd Murchison on recovering gold from old electronics demonstrates. By subjecting a modest heap of old electronics to a fairly labor-intensive extraction process, using some easily acquired household products, Murchison reckons that he was able to glean between $600 and $1600 worth of gold.
I remember learning about the gold rush in school when I was growing up and it seems like this could actually be a great science project to do with kids, which could double as a fundraiser by putting the recovered gold towards a future project.
ADVERTISEMENT