E-Waste Precious Metal Recovery Calculator
Estimates the dollar value of gold and silver recoverable from e-waste such as smartphones, laptops, and desktop computers, based on device counts, recovery efficiency, and current precious metal prices. Use it to assess the profitability of an e-waste recycling operation.
Last updated: September 2026
Formula below · 2 sources (epa.gov, Wikipedia) · Updated Sep 2026
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About this calculator
Electronic devices contain small but valuable quantities of precious metals — primarily gold and silver — deposited on circuit boards and connectors. The formula calculates total recovery value from two streams: gold value and silver value. Gold content assumptions are approximately 0.024 g per smartphone, 0.2 g per laptop, and 0.15 g per desktop. Silver content assumptions are approximately 0.26 g per smartphone, 1.5 g per laptop, and 1.2 g per desktop. The formula is: Value = ((smartphones × 0.024 + laptops × 0.2 + desktops × 0.15) × recoveryRate × goldPrice / 31.1035) + ((smartphones × 0.26 + laptops × 1.5 + desktops × 1.2) × recoveryRate × 24 / 31.1035). Metal contents are in grams and prices in dollars per troy ounce, so each term divides by 31.1035 grams per troy ounce; 24 is a baseline silver price of $24/oz (about $0.77/g). RecoveryRate (0–1) accounts for metallurgical losses during the hydrometallurgical or smelting refining process.
How to use
Assume you process 500 smartphones, 100 laptops, and 50 desktops, with a recovery rate of 0.80 and a gold price of $1,900 per troy ounce. Gold grams = (500 × 0.024) + (100 × 0.2) + (50 × 0.15) = 12 + 20 + 7.5 = 39.5 g. Silver grams = (500 × 0.26) + (100 × 1.5) + (50 × 1.2) = 130 + 150 + 60 = 340 g. Gold value = 39.5 × 0.80 × 1,900 / 31.1035 ≈ $1,930. Silver value = 340 × 0.80 × 24 / 31.1035 ≈ $210. Total recovery value ≈ $2,140 from this batch, or about $3.29 per device.
Frequently asked questions
How much gold is actually in a smartphone and is it worth recovering?
A typical modern smartphone contains approximately 0.02–0.03 grams of gold, used in connectors, circuit board traces, and SIM contacts. At current gold prices that is roughly $1–2 per device, which sounds trivial individually but becomes significant at industrial scale — processing one million phones yields 20–30 kg of gold worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Professional e-waste refiners process devices in bulk using hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical techniques to make recovery economically viable, typically achieving recovery rates of 75–90%.
What recovery rate should I use for e-waste precious metal calculations?
Recovery rate reflects what fraction of the theoretical metal content is actually extracted after processing. State-of-the-art commercial refiners using advanced hydrometallurgical processes achieve rates of 0.85–0.95 for gold. Simpler smelting operations may achieve only 0.70–0.80. If you are evaluating a new operation without established data, 0.80 is a reasonable conservative estimate. Using an inflated recovery rate will overstate projected revenue, so it is better to err on the side of caution when assessing business cases.
Why is silver included when gold dominates the value of recycled electronics?
Electronic devices contain several times more silver than gold by weight — silver is used in solder, contacts, and conductive inks throughout circuit boards, and a laptop may hold 5-10 times as many grams of silver as gold. Because gold costs roughly 80-100 times more per gram, gold still dominates the value (about $1,930 of gold versus $210 of silver in the worked example), but silver adds a meaningful 10% or so. This calculator models both metals separately so you can see the contribution of each to total recovery value.