From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 15253 invoked from network); 31 Jul 2023 16:52:19 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (2600:3c01:e000:146::1) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 31 Jul 2023 16:52:19 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 111F041115; Tue, 1 Aug 2023 02:52:17 +1000 (AEST) Received: from anduin.eldar.org (anduin.eldar.org [IPv6:2001:470:c620:0:280:c8ff:fef8:70bc]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id CFC084110F for ; Tue, 1 Aug 2023 02:52:08 +1000 (AEST) Received: from anduin.eldar.org (IDENT:brad@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by anduin.eldar.org (8.16.1/8.13.8) with ESMTPS id 36VGq3aB000556 (version=TLSv1.3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Mon, 31 Jul 2023 12:52:03 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from brad@localhost) by anduin.eldar.org (8.16.1/8.13.8/Submit) id 36VGq2Zd016516; Mon, 31 Jul 2023 12:52:02 -0400 (EDT) From: Brad Spencer To: Paul Winalski In-Reply-To: (message from Paul Winalski on Mon, 31 Jul 2023 12:36:47 -0400) Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2023 12:52:02 -0400 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.6.4 (anduin.eldar.org [0.0.0.0]); Mon, 31 Jul 2023 12:52:03 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID-Hash: 6BPZ6PBHYSSSOPAQ6JGXKKRSWL363HYE X-Message-ID-Hash: 6BPZ6PBHYSSSOPAQ6JGXKKRSWL363HYE X-MailFrom: brad@anduin.eldar.org X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: coff@tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [COFF] Re: Typical Fate of Older Hardware List-Id: Computer Old Farts Forum Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: Paul Winalski writes: > I just read that on average one gram of gold is extracted from one ton > of gold ore. Between the circuit runs inside chip packages and the > gold coating on contacts, I'd think that discarded circuit boards > could match conventional gold ore in terms of yield. My understanding is the extraction of the gold from the contacts is more often than not, more expensive to do then to mine new gold. If I recall the details correctly, there are not a lot of ways to do that with gold because it doesn't react with a lot of other elements so it ends up being hard to reduce. > There's a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth concerning the world's > supply of rare earth metals, which are needed for, among other things, > the permanent magnets in disk drives. Wouldn't discarded hard drives > be a good source of these metals vs. virgin ores? Shug... maybe... but with more and more systems going to solid state storage, the need for spinning rust is decreasing each year (and probably each quarter at this point). > --Paul W. -- Brad Spencer - brad@anduin.eldar.org - KC8VKS - http://anduin.eldar.org