Turning junk into gold
worth in a year’s
The gold rubbish electronic of UK produce to enough would be gold rings. 858,000
The Royal Mint has announced plans for a new factory where it will process electronic junk to extract precious metals for coins and gold bars. The factory is due to open at Llantrisant in South Wales next year. It will be the first of its kind in the world.
The Royal Mint is a Government-owned company that makes coins for the UK and lots of other countries. Most of its coins are made from cheaper metals such as copper, tin and zinc, but the Mint sometimes makes coins and medals from precious metals like gold and silver. It also makes gold bars, known as bullion. Countries and banks like to keep gold bars because they are very valuable and their price doesn’t tend to go up or down suddenly.
The precious metals used by the Mint are mostly mined from the ground but now it plans to make use of the vast amounts of electronic waste (known as e-waste) that is thrown away in the UK each year. Many electronic devices use small quantities of precious metals such as gold and silver because they are good conductors of electricity. However, it is estimated that just 20% of old electronics are recycled worldwide. This is not just a waste, it can be dangerous, because when e-waste is buried in rubbish dumps, metals and chemicals can leak out and pollute the environment.
Currently, e-waste from the UK is sent abroad to be melted down to recover precious metals. The new factory will use chemical reactions to do the same job much quicker and using far less energy.
The process can extract 99% of the precious metals from plastic circuit boards within a few seconds, and could provide the Mint with hundreds of kilograms of gold each year.
“Our new plant will see The Royal Mint become a leader in sustainably sourced precious metals,” said Anne Jessopp, the Mint’s chief executive (boss). She added that the factory would also help the UK process its own e-waste, rather than sending it to other countries.