Boards · Tier A

Telecom backplanes

Rows of press-fit connectors with thick gold pins on a heavy multilayer slab. The pins carry essentially all the value.

Au 1–3 g/lb wholeAg 0.5–2 g/lbCu 20–30%

eBay typical$10–18per lb

Refiner pays$6.5per lb

Metal in it$30.8per lb at 4 Aug 2026 spot

Confidencemedof the yield figures

How to spot it

Large passive boards from telecom racks, mainframes and industrial chassis, covered in DIN 41612 or hard-metric connectors.

Metal content

Metal	Quantity	Notes
Gold	1–3 g/lb whole	cut connectors alone 2–5 g/lb; bare laminate after removal 0.05–0.15
Silver	0.5–2 g/lb
Copper	20–30%

At 4 Aug 2026 spot prices that works out to $30.8 per pound of contained metal — Gold 0.22 g = $28.7, Copper 110 g = $1.18, Silver 0.5 g = $0.95. A refiner paying $6.5 returns about 21% of that, which is normal: refining costs money and the buyer takes a margin.

Safe removal

Working temperature: Heat gun 400–500 °C

Shear or preheat-and-pull the connector rows. Quote and sell on the trimmed connector fraction, never the panel weight.

Hazards

☠ 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 FR4 slab is most of the weight and nearly all of it is worthless.

Questions

How much gold is in telecom backplanes?

Gold: 1–3 g/lb whole. Silver: 0.5–2 g/lb. Copper: 20–30%. At current spot that is about $30.8 of contained metal per pound.

How do you identify telecom backplanes?

Rows of press-fit connectors with thick gold pins on a heavy multilayer slab. The pins carry essentially all the value.

How do you remove telecom backplanes safely?

Shear or preheat-and-pull the connector rows. Quote and sell on the trimmed connector fraction , never the panel weight.

Related in Boards

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