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🕒 14 hrs ago

Royal Mint's 4,000-Ton E-Waste Alchemy Yields Half-Ton Gold

Thumbnail for Royal Mint's 4,000-Ton E-Waste Alchemy Yields Half-Ton Gold
Image & Source: sciencealert

In Llantrisant, Wales, the Royal Mint's 3,700-square-meter plant processes 4,000 tons of circuit boards yearly, extracting half a ton of gold. This innovative method, developed with Excir, uses room-temperature chemistry to recover 999.9 purity gold, reducing reliance on traditional mining.

Beyond gold, the facility recovers 1,000 tons of copper, 2.5 tons of silver, and 50 kg of palladium annually. This approach addresses the 62 million tons of global e-waste produced in 2022, offering a sustainable solution to electronic waste management.

Remarkably, the gold extracted from e-waste is used in the Mint's '886' jewelry line, turning yesterday's tech into today's treasures.

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