It’s fair to say that interest in gold is longstanding. This includes recovering the gold used as a conductor in electronics — especially cell phones, which use more than laptops.

Gold is considered a particularly good conductor, but much of it is never recovered and reused. There are a number of ways of separating it and other precious metals from electronics, including smelting through chemicals. The latter involves the use of toxic chemicals, such as cyanide, mercury and hydrochloric acid. Ample protection is needed, but the incentive is clear, and how-to videos can get millions of page views.

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