Royal Mint to extract gold from old laptops and mobile phones

Royal Mint starts work on world’s first recycling factory to turn old laptops and mobile phones into GOLD

  • Plant will be the first in the world to recover gold from disused circuit boards
  • Technology created in Canada will recover 99 per cent of precious metals from electronic waste processed at The Royal Mint site in Llantrisant, South Wales 
  • Bosses expect to process up to 90 tonnes of British circuit boards every week

The Royal Mint is building the world’s first recycling factory to turn old laptops and mobile phones into gold.

The state-of-the-art plant will be the first of its kind in the world to recover gold from discarded circuit boards.

High quality gold taken from the items will then be used by The Royal Mint at its site in Llantrisant, South Wales.

Bosses expect to process up to 90 tonnes of British circuit boards every week – making hundreds of kilograms of gold per year.

The Royal Mint is building the first plant set to recover gold from discarded circuit boards using technology created in Canada

Technology created in Canada will recover 99 per cent of precious metals from electronic waste destined for the scrap heap.

The new scheme will allow also create around 40 jobs for chemists and engineers when the site opens next year.

Construction will begin this month using the unique technology created by Canadian-based Excir.

Sean Millard, Chief Growth Officer at The Royal Mint, said: ‘Working with our partners Excir, we have introduced world first technology to the UK capable of recovering precious metals from electronic waste in seconds.

‘This approach is revolutionary and offers huge potential to reuse our planet’s precious resources, reduce the environmental footprint of electronic waste and create new jobs.

‘We estimate that 99 per cent of the UK’s circuit boards are currently shipped overseas to be processed at high temperatures in smelters.

As the volume of electronic waste increases each year, this problem is only set to become bigger.

‘When fully operational our plant will be the first of its kind in the world – processing tonnes of electronic waste each week, and providing a new source of high quality gold direct to The Royal Mint.’

Anne Jessopp, Chief Executive of The Royal Mint, added: ‘Our investment in a new plant will see The Royal Mint become a leader in sustainably sourced precious metals and provide the UK with a much-needed domestic solution to the growing problem of electronic waste.’

Over 50 million tonnes of electronic waste is produced globally every year – with less than 20 per cent currently recycled.

This is set to reach 74 million tonnes by 2030 if nothing is done.

The Royal Mint site will be located in Llantrisant, South Wales, and will process tonnes of electronic waste each week

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