The Royal Mint of UK Starts New 'Gold Rush' with Electronic Waste Recycling
TapTechNews August 11th news, the Royal Mint of the UK, a time-honored national institution, is kicking off a brand new 'gold rush'. Different from traditional mine exploitation, the Royal Mint has set its sights on electronic waste.
The Royal Mint has just opened a precious metal recycling plant covering nearly 40,000 square feet in South Wales, which adopts the patented chemical technology of Canadian company Excir and is able to extract 99.9 high-purity gold from circuit boards in consumer electronics such as TVs, laptops and mobile phones.
It is worth noting that although major technology companies have long started to recycle precious metals from circuit boards. For example, Dell achieved the goal of recycling 2 billion pounds of electronic waste two years ahead of schedule in 2018, and Apple also recycles materials such as tin and aluminum for the production of new products, but the Royal Mint is the first company to directly use the recycled precious metals for its own products.
The new plant can process up to 4,400 tons of circuit boards per year and produce up to half a ton of gold, which is valued at approximately £27 million (TapTechNews note: currently about 247 million yuan) at current prices. This process only takes a few minutes and is more energy-efficient and cost-effective than traditional gold mine exploitation.
Facing the huge market of 68 million tons of electronic waste generated globally every year, the new plant of the Royal Mint undoubtedly has sufficient raw materials. In addition to gold, the plant also recycles other materials such as aluminum, copper, tin and steel for subsequent recycling and processing.
At present, the Royal Mint has used recycled gold to create a luxury jewelry series named '886', including necklaces, bracelets, pendants, earrings, signet rings, etc., and the product prices range from £275 to £110,000.
At the same time, the commissioning of the new plant has also created new employment opportunities. Anne Jessopp, the CEO of the Royal Mint, said that the company is not only protecting limited precious metal resources, but also passing on the exquisite craftsmanship of the oldest enterprise in the UK through creating employment opportunities and retraining employees.