Using a proprietary chemical process pioneered by Canadian firm Excir, the Royal Mint has begun mining old circuit boards from electronic devices for gold, turning the resulting gold into attractive, if expensive, jewelry.
The Royal Mint has been producing coins and other products made from precious metals for over 1,000 years. But as fewer and fewer people use real coins, the institution finds itself having to look elsewhere to stay relevant. Enter the e-waste landscape, where the UK is the second-largest producer per capita in the world, according to the Royal Mint.
The United Nations says that a record amount of e-waste was produced in 2022. The world threw away 62 million tons of phones, computers, televisions and other devices filled with a wide range of valuable and also toxic substances. The organization says that e-waste will increase by another 32% by 2030, and we will throw away 82 million tons of electronics per year.
The Royal Mint adds that less than 20% of all e-waste is currently recycled and that around 7% of all gold in the world is currently locked up inside electronic devices, mostly connected to circuit boards. It also says that there is currently around $57 billion worth of precious metal in e-waste in total.
Seeing an opportunity to not only reduce this waste, but also turn it into something desirable and make some money in the process, the Royal Mint has opened a 3,700 square metre factory in South Wales capable of processing 4,000 tonnes of electronic device printed circuit boards (PCBs) per year.
The factory uses a process developed by Canadian cleantech company Excir, in which circuit boards are shredded and soaked in a proprietary eco-friendly chemical that separates the gold from the boards, all at room temperature. The suspended gold particles are then sifted out and reused. According to Excir, the process recovers more than 99% of the gold from e-waste in seconds.
The company’s method is in line with another e-waste gold recovery process announced earlier this year that yielded $50 worth of gold for every $1 spent.
In this case, the Royal Mint is turning the gold it mined from PCBs into a jewelry collection called 886. The collection includes two pendants, a bracelet and a signet ring, and is priced between £1,525 and £2,995 (about $1,937-$3,805).

Royal Mint
If that's too expensive but you still want to support the idea of recycling metal from e-waste, the company also offers a range of silver jewellery made from metal salvaged from X-rays, with prices starting at £225 (about $285).
“The Royal Mint is transforming for the future and the opening of our Precious Metals Recovery facility is an important step in our journey,” said Anne Jessopp, chief executive of The Royal Mint. “Not only are we preserving finite precious metals for future generations, we are also preserving the expert craftsmanship for which The Royal Mint is renowned, creating new jobs and reskilling opportunities for our staff. We have ambitious plans and I am proud to be preserving The Royal Mint for another 1,100 years.”
The video below takes you up close and personal with The Royal Mint's new recycling facility, allowing you to learn more about it.
Royal Mint | Recovering gold from e-waste
Source: The Royal Mint