Royal Mint to Recycle Precious Metals from Electronics Waste

Experts believe that as much as 7% of the world’s gold may be contained within the circuit boards of e-waste, most of which ends up in landfill or is incinerated.

In an interesting example of combining diversification with sustainability, The Royal Mint (TRM) is set to help address this waste by signing up to a pioneering technology that will allow it to recycle discarded mobile phones and laptops to recover gold, silver and other precious metals.

TRM has signed a deal with Canadian start-up Excir to use the world’s first sustainable precious metal technology. It aims to use the technology at its site at Llantrissant in South Wales to retrieve the precious metals from e-waste, which is contained within the circuit boards of discarded electronics such as phones and laptops.

According to Excir, its technology can recover 99% of the gold from e-waste. Trials of the technology have already produced gold with a purity of 999.9, and has the potential to also recover palladium, silver, copper and other high value metals. It is based on chemistry that selectively targets and extracts precious metals from circuit boards in seconds, all at room temperature. Scientists and engineers at TRM are now working to scale up the technology from the laboratory to mass production.

The UN Global E-Waste Monitor puts the figure of e-waste produced worldwide each year at more than 50 million tonnes. This is up by 21% from 2015, and is set to increase to 74 tonnes by 2030. E-waste, says the Monitor, is the world’s fastest growing domestic waste stream, fuelled by high consumption of electrical and electronic equipment, short life cycles and few options for repair.

Less than 20% of this waste is currently recycled, with precious metals valued at an estimated $57 billion largely dumped or burned in high temperature smelters, rather than being collected for treatment and re-use.

As much as 7% of the world’s gold may be contained in e-waste, with 100 times more gold in a tonne of e-waste than in a tonne of gold ore.

Commenting on the announcement, Anne Jessopp, TRM Chief Executive, said: ‘this partnership represents a significant milestone for The Royal Mint as we reinvent for the future as the home of precious metals in the UK. The potential of this technology is huge, reducing the impact of electronic waste, preserving precious commodities, and forging new skills which help drive a circular economy.’