The weighted scrap circuit board index dipped below $7.00 per pound for the first time in nearly three years, with the May average of the index sinking to $6.87 per pound.

May’s scrap circuit board index value is down 3.6 percent from April’s estimate and down 7.8 percent from May 2012. Year-to-date, the index is down 14 percent, due largely to plummeting prices of precious metals, as well as base metal prices that are either flat or slowly receding.

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 scrap circuit board index, visit Resource Recycling.