The Royal Mint has unveiled a novel collaboration with Canadian cleantech firm Excir dedicated to extracting gold from electronic waste.
Recycling an idea mooted three years ago, Royal Mint plans to put Excir's techniques to use in a 3,700 square metre facility in Wales to process up to 4,000 tonnes and printed circuit boards to extract the precious metal found in everyday items, such as TVs, laptops and mobile phones.
Excir has developed room-temperature chemistry practices to ‘mine’ the high-purity gold trapped in these devices.
“It allows us to reduce our reliance on mined materials and is another example of how we’re working to decarbonise our operations,” said Royal Mint’s chief growth officer Sean Millard.
“We are not only preserving finite precious metals for future generations, but we are also preserving the expert craftmanship The Royal Mint is famous for by creating new jobs and reskilling opportunities for our employees,” added Royal Mint’s chief executive Anne Jessopp.
Royal Mint did not say how much gold is estimated to be extracted at the facility.