Compiled by GERARD GIMINO, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHANWITH the price of gold soaring to new highs, a man went viral on Chinese cyberspace for supposedly extracting more than 210,000 yuan (RM120,662) of gold just from SIM cards, reported Sin Chew Daily. A man from Guangdong province, who goes by the handle Qiao the Hakka Gold Refiner online, shared a video, which went viral, on how he extracted the 191.73g of gold from electronic waste. He added that his operation was a regulated precious-metal recycling process targeting specific electronic wastes, not a story about an average man refining gold from discarded SIM cards. It is understood that SIM card chips have an extremely thin layer of gold plating on their pins and circuit connections to improve conductivity and resistance to corrosion. Industry experts say that a single ordinary SIM card contains only 0.006 to 0.01mg of gold, making the process economically viable only through long-term, large-scale collection.

Source: The Star January 26, 2026 01:24 UTC