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Would be equally interesting to know how much it cost them to recover that much gold from that many devices.

it is a profitable venture there are companies that recover precious metals from computer equipment

Hobbyists too.

but at the scale he is doing it, he looses money

That's what a "hobby" is: a money-losing activity.

A "business" is a money-making hobby.

Sort of. Those businesses have externalities in worker unsafety and pollution.