Abstract

Today, smart cards which include a small microchip are very widely used in our daily lives. The chief among these is credit cards. In addition, gift shopping card, phone card, sim card, hotel room card involves great proportions. They generally include many precious metals in their body, including noble metals, and semi-noble metals; predominantly gold, silver, copper, etc. The aim of this experimental work is to recover the metals from the smart cards by hydrometallurgical processes namely acidic leaching (HNO3 and Aqua Regia) followed by precipitation and cementation. Three different types of smart cards; credit cards supplied from different banks, telephone cards produced for Turk Telekom, and sim cards from three different mobile service providers, are used in the experimental work. As a result of this study, almost all copper, silver, and gold are recovered according to the experimental flowsheet proposed.