Why circuit board prices follow the price of gold
The price of a circuit board follows the price of gold because gold and the other precious metals make up most of its value: more than 80% for a computer or mobile phone board, according to Christopher Corti and Christian Hagelüken (Alchemist, the LBMA's magazine, 2010). Smelters pay for boards according to their metal content, valued at the day's prices. When gold rises, the value of high-grade boards rises with it; low-grade boards barely move.
What gives a circuit board its value?
A board contains dozens of materials, but only a few metals pay for recycling. Corti and Hagelüken estimated the share of value contributed by gold and the other precious metals by type of device:
| Device | Gold content | Share of value from precious metals |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile phones | 300 to 350 g/t | more than 80% |
| Computer boards | 200 to 250 g/t | more than 80% |
| TV boards, DVD players | not specified | about 50% |
Source: C. W. Corti and C. Hagelüken, "Sustainable Recycling of Electronic Scrap", Alchemist, LBMA, 2010.
According to the same authors, copper comes right after the precious metals in a board's value. The other materials (iron, aluminium, plastics, glass fibre) weigh a lot but are worth little.
How does a smelter pay for a board?
The recycler who buys your boards sells them on, sorted by category, to specialist smelters and refiners. These do not pay a fixed price per kilo: Umicore, one of Europe's main refiners, states for example that it uses "assay-based settlement". The principle is as follows:
- Sampling: the batch is shredded and a representative sample is taken.
- Assay: the gold, silver, palladium and copper content is measured.
- Valuation: each recoverable metal is multiplied by its market price.
- Deductions: treatment and refining charges, and process losses. According to the Annales des Mines (C. Thomas, 2020), copper smelters recover about 98% of the copper and precious metals.
The gold price therefore feeds directly into the calculation. Buyback price lists, such as the one for circuit boards per kilo, turn this mechanism into prices per category, without you having to get your batch assayed.
How much does the gold price change the value of a kilo of boards?
The gold price has risen sharply. According to the World Gold Council (Gold Demand Trends, full year 2025), an ounce was worth US$3,431 on average in 2025, up 44% year on year, with 53 all-time highs during the year. On 14/11/2026, an ounce was quoted at €3,523.76, or €113.29 per gram, according to Or.fr.
For one kilo of computer boards at 250 g of gold per tonne, i.e. 0.25 g of gold, here is the raw gold contained depending on the price. The calculation is illustrative; it ignores silver, palladium, copper and all charges.
| Gold price | Raw gold contained in 1 kg of boards at 250 g/t |
|---|---|
| 14/11/2026 price minus 10% (€101.96/g) | €25.49 |
| 14/11/2026 price (€113.29/g) | €28.32 |
| 14/11/2026 price plus 10% (€124.62/g) | €31.15 |
A 10% move in gold therefore shifts the gold contained in that kilo by about €2.83. The price paid to the seller moves in the same direction, but by a smaller amount, because collection, sorting, shredding and refining costs do not fall when gold rises.
Why do not all boards react in the same way?
Because their gold content varies widely: according to the Annales des Mines (2020), it ranges from 10 to 1,000 g/t. The richer a board, the larger the share of gold in its value, and the more closely its price follows the gold price. Here are the public prices as at 15/11/2026 (base tier):
| Category | Buyback price | Sensitivity to the gold price |
|---|---|---|
| Hard drive motherboard | €26.00/kg | high |
| Old-generation mobile phone motherboard | €25.00/kg | high |
| Gold-plated circuit board | €15.90/kg | high |
| Server motherboard | €7.28/kg | medium |
| Consumer circuit board | €2.58/kg | low |
| Low-grade circuit board | €0.68/kg | low |
The "sensitivity" column is a qualitative reading, not a measured coefficient. Low-grade boards contain little gold: their value depends mainly on copper and on treatment charges, which weigh about the same per tonne whatever the board. For these boards, a rise in gold changes the price very little.
The richest components are even more exposed. As at 15/11/2026, an Intel x86 ceramic processor is bought at €317.50/kg and gold memory at €40.00/kg.
Why does the buyback price not move every day like gold?
Three reasons:
- The settlement delay: the smelter pays after sampling and assay, on a consolidated batch. The recycler therefore carries the price risk between buying and selling.
- The other metals: silver, palladium and copper do not necessarily move in line with gold.
- Fixed costs: transport, sorting and treatment do not depend on metal prices.
That is why RECYNEW publishes regularly updated price lists and a monthly buyback price barometer (minimum, median and maximum per family), rather than a price indexed minute by minute.
Should you wait for gold to rise before selling?
Nobody can predict the gold price, and waiting has a cost: storage space, handling, theft risk, boards getting damaged. For a business, the safest rule is to sell once the batch is complete, separating high-grade boards so that they are paid in their proper category. Create your online buyback request: you receive a quote within 48 working hours, and the firm price is confirmed after weighing and inspection at our WEEELABEX-certified centre in Millonfosse (Nord, France).
In short
- Gold and precious metals account for more than 80% of the value of computer and phone boards (Corti and Hagelüken, LBMA, 2010).
- Smelters pay according to the assayed content, valued at metal prices, minus charges and losses.
- Gold averaged US$3,431 an ounce in 2025, up 44% year on year (World Gold Council); it was quoted at €3,523.76 on 14/11/2026 (Or.fr).
- High-grade boards follow gold closely; low-grade boards depend mainly on copper and charges.
- As at 15/11/2026, boards are bought at €0.68 to €26.00/kg depending on the category.