New facility to extract gold from electronics to open in Wales

The Royal Mint will soon be working on its own internal recycling plant to extract gold from electronic waste.

The plant will be based at the mint headquarters in Llantrisant, South Wales, with work on site starting this month.

It is expected to be fully operational by early 2023, the Royal Mint said, and will have the capacity to recycle 90 tonnes of electronic waste each week.

Unlike existing electronics recycling, where waste is smelted at high temperatures, the new plant will rely on a chemical process developed by the Canadian technology company Excir.

The waste is sorted to extract the circuit boards from laptops and mobile phones and then mixed with a patented formula to make a gold liquid in a few seconds.

The solution is processed to extract the solid gold, and the process can recover about 99% of the gold in the electronic waste.

The Royal Mint said the new facility will provide a new and reliable source of gold that goes straight back into business.

Electronic waste is a growing problem, with an estimated 50 million tonnes produced worldwide each year.

Less than 20% are thought to be recycled, and the total volume of electronic waste is expected to hit 74 million tonnes by 2030 if no action is taken.

Sean Millard, Chief Growth Officer at Royal Mint, said: “This approach is revolutionary and offers enormous potential for using the planet’s valuable resources, reducing the environmental impact of electronic waste and creating new jobs.

“We estimate that 99% of UK circuit boards are currently shipped overseas to be processed at high temperatures and smelters.

“As the volume of electronic waste increases every year, this problem only gets bigger.”

Anne Jessopp, chief executive of Royal Mint, said: “Our investment in a new plant will make Royal Mint a leader in sustainable precious metals sources and provide the UK with a much-needed home solution to the growing problem of electronic waste.” .