Britain’s Royal Mint strikes gold in electronic waste amid high prices
It dismantles devices first and then dissolves the metal at room temperature instead of smelting.
Llantrisant, United Kingdom – At the Royal Mint's Cardiff facility, old telephones from the Bank of England are dismantled and placed in giant vats to extract gold from their circuits. This innovative approach turns electronic waste into high-end jewelry. The Royal Mint, which also manufactures coins and medals for the British government, has only been processing around 4,000 tonnes of electronic waste annually, yielding about 400 kilos of gold.
Each recycled Bank of England phone contains roughly 30mg of gold, worth £3 at current rates. A typical smartphone contains about £4 worth of gold. Gold is highly valued in electronic circuits due to its excellent conductivity and resistance to corrosion. However, recovering it from electronic waste is challenging. Most recyclers melt down the waste, but the Mint's method involves dissolving gold at room temperature without the need for high heat or hazardous acids.
Chemical analyst Kate Griffiths demonstrates the process by dissolving electronic components in a bath of reagents, leading to the formation of gold powder. This gold is then purified and used to craft jewelry for the Royal Mint's "886" brand, honoring the year of the institution's founding. In addition to gold, the Mint recycles silver, sourced from old radios donated by British hospitals.
Despite global electronic waste recycling rates remaining low at 22.3% in 2022, high gold prices have made this unconventional recycling method economically viable. Experts suggest that as gold prices continue to rise, the process of recovering precious metals from electronic waste will become more attractive and sustainable.
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