Spot on.
As for rhodium, my most favourite metal, it’s tuff. Rhodium is currently many times the value of gold per ounce. What’s in hard drive heads is as close to pure as you can ask for. But, and a big butt, If you typed a letter at 12pt font the rhodium piece would fit inside a period. It’s a pain to remove, (it’s an a thin shell), easy to loose, weighs nothing.
That all said as of yesterday 5PM EDT rhodium was at $14,000! Pet Troy ounce! ± A few hundred dollars in transaction variance.
I won’t tell you it’s worth it. It takes tens of dozens of drives to make a diamond scale register a weight. But at that price: ...? Rhodium isn’t an over the counter metal. All but the highest end jewellery shops will look at you funny. Coin shops and pawn shops have zero interest. But if you find a buyer and have enough! Or if you are in or near a big city, you can try to get an investment banker to do an assaying.
For the gold hunters who thought I was crazy a few years back. Gold was $900ish and rhodium was $2000 when I posted the hard drive breakdown. Who’s laughing now?!? Just remember you need hundreds of hard drives before someone will take you seriously.
The rest is quite forward. Contacts are gold finger. Motors are motors; you may get auto or commercial motor price locally, a bit higher price. Wire is wire. ICs are IC. The ribbon cable, free of plastic back pieces and ICs is mixed wire. If you break the motor open you get copper, steel, some tin, and a kool cobalt circle magnet. Cobalt is expensive in its own right. Around $1-$3 per pound if you find a yard that buys it. And you’ll need to remove it from the disc without shattering it. Good luck.
Ps: don’t vacuum up cobalt. I blew up my vacuum motor doing so. As in literal fire and brimstone. Clean broken cobalt magnets with a small piece of steel. Place the steel and shards in a freezer bag. Seal and place in recycling bin.
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