Boards · Tier A

Cell phone boards

Density. A phone board carries more gold per gram than almost anything else in consumer e-scrap. Gold-plated shield cans, gold antenna spring contacts, gold pads under the shields, dozens of tiny BGAs.

Au 0.09–0.50 g/lbAg 0.23–1.26 g/lbPd 0.025–0.07 g/lbCu 12–56%

eBay typical$25–40per lb

Refiner pays$20.5per lb

Metal in it$44.1per lb at 4 Aug 2026 spot

Confidencemedof the yield figures

How to spot it

Very small, extremely dense multilayer boards with soldered-down RF shield cans.

Metal content

Metal	Quantity	Notes
Gold	0.09–0.50 g/lb	fully populated 1050+ ppm; depopulated 180 ppm
Silver	0.23–1.26 g/lb
Palladium	0.025–0.07 g/lb
Copper	12–56%

At 4 Aug 2026 spot prices that works out to $44.1 per pound of contained metal — Gold 0.3 g = $39.2, Palladium 0.05 g = $2.06, Silver 0.8 g = $1.52, Copper 130 g = $1.39. A refiner paying $20.5 returns about 46% of that, which is normal: refining costs money and the buyer takes a margin.

Safe removal

Remove the lithium battery first. Remove the display. Then stop — sell them populated. Refiners pay a premium for assembled phone boards and penalise stripped ones.

Hazards

🔥 Lithium battery fire

A standard ABC extinguisher will NOT stop a runaway lithium cell. Don't count on one.

☠ Lead — dust more than fume

NEVER dry sweep or use compressed air on a scrapping bench. HEPA-vac or wet-wipe only.

The common trap

The famous "0.034 g of gold per phone" is a whole-handset-including-battery average. Per-board yield swings 5× on whether shields, cameras and connectors are still attached — always specify which you mean.

Questions

How much gold is in cell phone boards?

Gold: 0.09–0.50 g/lb. Silver: 0.23–1.26 g/lb. Palladium: 0.025–0.07 g/lb. Copper: 12–56%. At current spot that is about $44.1 of contained metal per pound.

How do you identify cell phone boards?

Density. A phone board carries more gold per gram than almost anything else in consumer e-scrap. Gold-plated shield cans, gold antenna spring contacts, gold pads under the shields, dozens of tiny BGAs.

How do you remove cell phone boards safely?

Remove the lithium battery first. Remove the display. Then stop — sell them populated . Refiners pay a premium for assembled phone boards and penalise stripped ones.

Related in Boards

Telecom / military boards Boards · $11–35/lb Au 0.3–4 g/lbAg 1–8 g/lbPd 0.02–0.3 g/lbCu 15–25% A Telecom backplanes Boards · $10–18/lb Au 1–3 g/lb wholeAg 0.5–2 g/lbCu 20–30% A Laptop motherboards Boards · $10–18/lb Au 0.20–0.50 g/lbAg 1–3 g/lbPd 0.02–0.08 g/lbCu 15–25% B Server motherboards Boards · $9–16/lb Au 0.05–0.3 g/lbAg 1–3 g/lbPd 0.02–0.10 g/lbCu 15–25% B Wire-wrap / pin boards Boards · $20–35/lb Au 0.6–1.5 g/lbAg 0.5–2 g/lbCu 20–30% B Arcade PCBs / JAMMA Boards Boards · $30–800/lb Au 0.05–0.20 g per board ≈ 0.09 g/lbCu ~45 g/lbAu ceramic gold-lid customs (FD1094 C

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