Royal Mint to Recycle Precious Metals from Electronics Waste

Experts believe that as much as 7% of the world’s gold may be contained within the circuit boards of e-waste, most of which ends up in landfill or is incinerated.

In an interesting example of combining diversification with sustainability, The Royal Mint (TRM) is set to help address this waste by signing up to a pioneering technology that will allow it to recycle discarded mobile phones and laptops to recover gold, silver and other precious metals.

TRM has signed a deal with Canadian start-up Excir to use the world’s first sustainable precious metal technology. It aims to use the technology at its site at Llantrissant in South Wales to retrieve the precious metals from e-waste, which is contained within the circuit boards of discarded electronics such as phones and laptops.