Minting it from PCBs in South Wales

The official producer of Britain’s coins, The Royal Mint, has opened a recycling facility to recover gold from printed circuit boards (PCBs).

The new factory in south Wales uses chemistry from Canadian clean tech company Excir. Excir’s patented technology works at room temperature and is said to create a more energy efficient and cost-effective method of gold recovery.

The factory scales up the innovative technology from laboratory to an industrial level and has the capacity to process up to 4 000 tonnes of PCBs from e-waste every year.

‘Sustainable’ gold

It provides the UK’s oldest company with a more sustainable way to mine high-quality 999.9 purity gold. Recovered gold is already being used in its luxury jewellery collection, 886 by The Royal Mint.

The United Nations’ Global E-waste Monitor reports that the generation of e-waste worldwide is rising by 2.6 million tonnes every year. A record 62 million tonnes of e-waste was produced in 2022, up 82% from 2010.

According to The Royal Mint’s ceo, Anne Jessopp: ‘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.’

New standards

The Royal Mint has also been engaging with major industry bodies to on the first standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for the definition of recycled gold, helping to provide clarity to the industry, consumers and other stakeholders.

Sean Millard, chief growth officer adds: ‘The factory underpins our commitment to using sustainable precious metals and providing a new source of high quality, recovered gold. It allows us to reduce our reliance on mined materials and is another example of how we’re working to decarbonise our operations.’