The Royal Mint, based in Wales, is about to inaugurate an electronic waste recycling plant for the extraction of gold from devices such as mobile phones, laptops, and other gadgets. This extraction will be used in making jewelry and special coins, hence doing this practice of recycling in-house and precluding the movement of such valuable elements around and out of the UK.

The Royal Mint, known for making coins, has another venture up its sleeve. It is all about converting old electronic waste in an attempt to scoop out gold from it. This is happening sure at a massive facility in Llantrisant, Wales, where the Mint has set up a special plant to recover the gold content from old circuit boards.

What Happens at the Plant?

In the new plant, workers are dealing with piles of old circuit cards. These are portions of old electronic gadgets such as telephones, computers, and televisions that are thrown away by people. The plant is in rows of machinery that basically heat these circuit cards to strip away their many components, after which they sift and shred the processed pieces on a conveyor strip. Only the shredded ones that contain gold are retained for the further process.

Inga Doak, the one person in charge of making sure that this project is good for the environment, refers to this as “urban mining.” So, in simple terms, they are finding valuable gold in things people usually throw away. This gold was once part of valuable electronics but now it’s being recycled and put to good use.

How Do They Get the Gold?

The parts that contain gold are taken to the on-site chemical factory. In this factory, the parts are mixed with a special chemical solution that leaches the gold from the parts. This solution is then filtered, and what remained was a powder. Not looking like much, it is pure gold. And then this powder is put into a furnace and heated to shiny gold nuggets.

Leighton John, operations director at the Royal Mint, explains that this new way of getting their hands on gold is much better than the old ways. The traditional recovery of gold often uses a great deal of energy—dangerous equipment and chemicals that must be safely disposed of. Their new method is designed to work at room temperature and it means less energy is used and much less environmental damage is done.

e-Waste is a global problem. An estimate holds that in 2022, a single year alone saw roughly 62 million tonnes worth of e-waste disposed of. The United Nations has provided an estimate of this amount increasing manifold by the year 2030. The Royal Mint’s project is a deft way to deal with some of this waste and recycle valuable materials like gold.

The UK is one of the biggest producers of e-waste per capita, with only Norway exceeding its collection. It is in this vein that the Royal Mint forecasts processing e-waste at its plant to tackle approximately 4,000 tonnes of waste annually. This should yield them some 450 kilograms of gold, valued at about £27 million.

A New Direction for the Royal Mint

The Royal Mint has been minting coins for more than a thousand years, but at a time when fewer people are using cash, it needs to find new ways to stay in business. This e-waste recycling project provides just the opportunity. Not only does it help the environment, but it also keeps jobs within the UK. According to CEO Anne Jessopp, the move into the processing of e-waste helps to keep people employed, even though fewer workers are needed to make coins.

Beyond Gold Recovery

Aside from gold recovery, the Royal Mint is also trying to figure out ways on how to use the other materials within the old circuit boards. These are aluminum, copper, tin, and steel. They are even conducting tests to check if pulverized circuit boards can be used for building.

What’s Next?

The Royal Mint’s new project is a creative way for solving a big problem: e-waste turned into gold. This is also considered by the recycling of their e-waste as a smart initiative in saving the environment and saving important resources in the United Kingdom. The Royal Mint project exemplifies an old technology repurposed into something of value and purpose. With the mountain of e-waste growing day by day, more projects of this sort will be needed, both to save the planet and use its resources wisely.