Contacts & relays · Tier D

RJ45 Jacks with Integrated Magnetics

Tilt the jack and look straight into the mouth — grey or silver contact tongues mean tin, and the jack is plastic and ferrite; only a deep uniform yellow on the tongue faces means the ~1 mg of gold is really there.

Au 0.02–0.07 g/lbCu ~57 g/lbBase ferrite

eBay typical$8–20per lb

Refiner pays$0per lb

Metal in it$6.48per lb at 4 Aug 2026 spot

Confidencemedof the yield figures

How to spot it

Black RJ45 housing with a metal shield can, noticeably deeper front-to-back than a plain jack (~21 mm vs ~14 mm), with 8–14 PCB pins and often green/yellow LEDs. Markings include J0011D21BNL, LPJ26204ADNL, HR911105A and Pulse/Bel/HALO/UDE logos. Mass 8–14 g; found on NICs, switches, routers, IP cameras, PLCs and set-top boxes.

Metal content

Metal	Quantity	Notes
Gold	0.02–0.07 g/lb	0.5–1.6 mg per jack; 15 µin consumer, up to 50 µin on Cat6 per IEC 60603-7
Copper	~57 g/lb	0.3–0.6 g of 40–44 AWG magnet wire per jack in the toroids
Base metal	ferrite, plastic, steel shield	Zero value

At 4 Aug 2026 spot prices that works out to $6.48 per pound of contained metal — Gold 0.045 g = $5.87, Copper 57 g = $0.61. A refiner paying $0 returns about 0% of that, which is normal: refining costs money and the buyer takes a margin.

Safe removal

Working temperature: Hot air 320–350 °C, board preheat 150 °C

Hot air at 320–350 °C from the underside; the shield can's ground tabs are heavily soldered and are the sticking point, so preheat the board to 150 °C. Or shear the housing off with side cutters and pull the contact comb. Cracking the epoxy potting lifts the toroids out.

Hazards

☠ Lead — dust more than fume

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

🪚 Fibreglass and board dust

NEVER dry-cut boards indoors without extraction.

Before you scrap it

Yes, by 50–150×. Board repair shops actively buy specific part numbers; a working pulled J0011D21BNL fetches $1.50–3.00 against ~$0.10 of metal. Test with a cable tester and sell in 10 or 25-packs by part number.

The common trap

Integrated magnetics sounds like transformers, and transformers sound like copper. They are 4–6 toroids wound with 40–44 AWG wire — a whole pound of magjacks holds roughly the copper in 18 inches of 14 AWG house wire. Combined with sub-milligram gold this is one of the worst value-per-pound items in the connector category.

Questions

How much gold is in rj45 jacks with integrated magnetics?

Gold: 0.02–0.07 g/lb. Copper: ~57 g/lb. At current spot that is about $6.48 of contained metal per pound.

How do you identify rj45 jacks with integrated magnetics?

Tilt the jack and look straight into the mouth — grey or silver contact tongues mean tin , and the jack is plastic and ferrite; only a deep uniform yellow on the tongue faces means the ~1 mg of gold is really there.

How do you remove rj45 jacks with integrated magnetics safely?

Is rj45 jacks with integrated magnetics worth more working than as scrap?

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