Gold From SIM Card: A person is in the news these days in China who has claimed to extract a large amount of gold from unused SIM cards and electronic waste. This person says that till now he has taken out about 191 grams of gold, the value of which is said to be around Rs 26 lakh in Indian Rupees. However, he has also warned about the risks associated with this work.
Who is this person and what does he do?
According to the report of South China Morning Post, this person, known as Qiao on social media, is a resident of Huizhou city of Guangdong province of China. Qiao works as a refiner of precious metal scrap. One of his videos, in which he shows the process of extracting gold, has been viewed more than 5 million times on Chinese social media.
How was gold removed from SIM card?
Mainland media reported that a man in Guangdong recently successfully extracted 191.73 grams of gold from a pile of old mobile phone SIM cards through a complex process, which is worth approximately 224,000 yuan at the current gold price. The video of the “gold refining” went… pic.twitter.com/PeOVCDvdtx
— Paul Sanyo (@paul_sanyo) January 24, 2026
In the video, Qiao can be seen putting old SIM cards into a drum filled with chemicals. After this it performs many chemical processes, such as rusting, melting the metal and heating it at high temperatures. After the process of filtering and melting is completed, finally the pure gold gets separated. According to the report, in this way he extracted about 191 grams of gold, the value of which is estimated to be around 2 lakh yuan i.e. about 26 lakh rupees.
More sources than just SIM card
Qiao clarified that all this gold did not come out of the SIM card alone. He used about two tons of electronic scrap, which also included chip waste from the telecom industry. According to him, some important parts of the SIM card are coated with gold so that they do not rust and work properly for a long time. Usually, there is less than 0.01 gram of gold in a SIM card, but a good amount of gold can be extracted by collecting garbage in large quantities. Gold is also present in the chips of bank cards and contact parts of communication devices.
Alchemist’s identity found on social media
After Qiao’s video, people on social media started jokingly calling him an alchemist. One user wrote that he once ran an internet café and threw away a lot of computer chip waste, now he is regretting it. While another user said that this work is not within everyone’s reach, it requires deep chemical understanding.
Kiao also warned
After watching Qiao’s video, many people started buying old SIM cards and trying to extract the gold themselves. But Qiao clearly said that his aim was not to instigate anyone for risky experiments. He told that he does this work with legal permission and certification. He also warned that doing so without knowledge and license could be dangerous as well as illegal.
Can you also become a millionaire?
However, as attractive as this story seems, it is also equally risky. Qiao himself has clearly warned that this work should not be done without professional knowledge, legal permission and safety measures. Using chemicals incorrectly can be fatal and is illegal in many countries. Therefore, caution is very important before adopting it without knowledge.
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