Royal Mint begins processing electronic waste to extract gold from old phones and computers

E-waste, which includes anything from old phones and computers to TVs, is a rapidly growing problem - the UN says 62m tonnes were thrown away in 2022.

The Royal Mint, best known for making the UK's coins, has now started processing electronic waste to extract gold from it.

E-waste, which includes anything from old phones and computers to TVs, is a rapidly growing problem - the UN says 62m tonnes were thrown away in 2022.

At the Royal Mint plant, piles of circuit boards are being fed into the new facility.

“Traditional gold recovery processes are very energy intensive and use very toxic chemicals that can only be used once, or they go to high energy smelters and they’re basically burnt,” says Leighton John, the Royal Mint's operations director.

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