Precious Metals from e-waste

I am experimenting with precious metals recovered from electronic waste to create new surface finishes and metal alloys. I am able to do this through collaborating with the Love Chemistry Laboratory at Edinburgh University and I am using their ‘hydro-metallurgy’ process that works with metals in solution.

Gold and other precious metals are used in electronic devices as they are good conductors of electricity. Electronic waste however, is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world. At the moment only around 11% of precious metals are being recovered from electronic devices in Europe and in other countries such as India this is as low as 1.5%. Around 41 mobile phones are needed to generate 1 gram of gold.

These precious metals are now included in an endangered list. Copper and gold are considered ‘limited availability with a future risk to supply’ and silver is considered a ‘serious threat of extinction in the next 100 years’

There is also a great difference in yield from ‘urban mining’ compared to traditional mining from ore out of the earth. From around 1 ton of ore you can expect around 9 grams of gold. From 1 ton of electronic waste you can expect to generate around 300 grams of gold!

We have recently been awarded an Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Research Grant to develop this work in India.

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