The weighted average value of precious and base metals in circuit board scrap took a steep dive in April, losing 7 percent of its value from the previous month.

The scrap circuit board index has declined every month since the beginning of the year and now sits at $7.12 per pound, versus $7.98 in January. Compared to April 2012, the current index is down 8.5 percent. In fact, the current average value is at its lowest point since January 2011 and has receded 16 percent from its all-time high of $8.47 per pound, set in August 2011.

This data represents the full metallic values of boards over time and are not the recycling values, as those values do not include the costs involved in actually extracting metal from boards, including freight, sampling charges, assay assessments, smelting, refining, process loss, return on investment, and penalties for various elements, including beryllium, bismuth and nickel.

These values are for the estimated intrinsic metal content of recovered PC boards. Some consumers label such material as mid-value. Lower-value scrap includes monitor and television boards. Higher-value scrap includes network and video cards, and motherboards.

To learn more about the value of circuit board scrap, visit Resource Recycling.