Royal Mint to turn electronic waste into gold

The Royal Mint is to start recovering gold from electronic waste to use in its coins and bars.

It hopes its new plant in Llantrisant, south Wales, will next year start salvaging the precious metal from the circuit boards of laptops and mobile phones.

The Royal Mint expects to process up to 90 tonnes of UK-sourced circuit boards per week, retrieving hundreds of kilograms of gold per year to re-use in its coins, bars and other products.

Currently 99% of the UK’s circuit boards are currently shipped overseas to be processed at high temperatures in smelters, the company estimates.

“As the volume of electronic waste increases each year, this problem is only set to become bigger,” said Sean Millard from The Royal Mint.

 


 

Source Sky News

March 23, 2022