The Royal Mint in the United Kingdom is turning e-waste into treasure, harnessing the gold found in old electronics like iPhones and laptops.
According to the BBC, the United Kingdom’s official coin maker has begun an innovative project at a new industrial plant in Wales, where workers are mining e-waste for valuable metals.
“We’re engaging in what we call urban mining,” Inga Doak, head of sustainability at the Royal Mint, told the BBC. “By extracting gold from waste products, we’re uncovering the hidden value in these finite resources.”
The Royal Mint has invested heavily in cutting-edge technology and infrastructure, allowing it to process 4,000 printed circuit boards annually, along with out-dated phones, TVs, and computers. As Doak told the magazine Fast Company, this initiative will reduce the mint’s dependence on traditionally mined gold. Notably, the extraction process in the new facility is performed at room temperature, which significantly reduces energy consumption, according to a statement from the mint.
E-waste is a rapidly growing global concern. The United Nations estimates that 56 million tonnes of e-waste are generated each year, with that number expected to rise. According to American Bullion, a precious metals company, the amount of gold in a single device varies by model, but an iPhone typically contains about 0.034 grams of gold. While the amount of gold in each device is small, the collective value of recoverable materials from global e-waste is estimated at $62 billion. Remarkably, e-waste is believed to contain around seven per cent of the world’s gold.