The Royal Mint, the UK’s official coin maker for over a thousand years, is charting a new path by diving into electronic waste. In Llantrisant, Wales, they’ve built an industrial plant to extract gold from discarded circuit boards—turning what many consider rubbish into gleaming treasure. Initially, the recovered gold will be used to craft jewellery, and soon, it will also find its way into commemorative coins.
This initiative addresses a rapidly growing problem: electronic waste. The UN reports that 62 million tonnes of e-waste were discarded in 2022, and this mountain of discarded tech is expected to grow by a third by 2030. Old phones, computers, and TVs contribute to this pileup, making e-waste one of the fastest-growing waste streams globally.
Urban Mining in Action
The Royal Mint’s new plant processes about 4,000 tonnes of e-waste annually. Piles of old circuit boards are fed into the facility, where they’re first heated to remove components. The coils, capacitors, pins, and transistors that are detached are then sorted, sieved, and separated along a conveyor belt—anything containing gold is set aside for extraction.
“What we’re doing here is urban mining,” says Inga Doak, head of sustainability at the Royal Mint. “We’re taking a waste product that’s being produced by society and mining the gold from that waste product, seeing the value in this finite resource.”
The gold-laden parts are then treated at an on-site chemical plant. They’re placed in a chemical solution that extracts the gold into a liquid. The liquid is filtered, leaving behind a powder that, although unassuming, is actually pure gold. This powder is heated in a furnace to create a gleaming gold nugget.
A Cleaner, Greener Approach to Gold Recovery
Traditional methods for gold recovery are energy-intensive and rely on toxic chemicals. In contrast, the Royal Mint’s approach uses a chemical process that works at room temperature, requires less energy, and is recyclable—all while extracting gold quickly. “The groundbreaking thing for us is that this chemistry is used at very low energy, it’s recyclable, and pulls gold really quickly,” explains Leighton John, operations director at the Royal Mint.
Keeping Resources in the UK
The UK is one of the biggest producers of e-waste per capita, second only to Norway. The Royal Mint aims to process over 4,000 tonnes of e-waste each year, keeping these materials within the UK instead of shipping them abroad. This effort not only reduces waste but also keeps valuable elements in the country for future use.
“Traditionally this waste is shipped overseas, but we’re keeping it in the UK and we’re keeping those elements in the UK for us to use. It’s really important,” says John.
From the estimated 4,000 tonnes of e-waste processed, the Royal Mint expects to generate up to 450kg of gold, worth about £27 million at current prices.
A Shift in Focus to Secure the Future
For the Royal Mint, this new venture is not just about generating revenue—it’s also about securing jobs. “We needed to diversify,” says CEO Anne Jessopp. “With fewer people now needed to make coins, this was an ideal opportunity to move people across to e-waste processing so that we could keep jobs for those individuals.”
In addition to recovering gold, the Royal Mint is exploring ways to reuse the other materials separated from circuit boards, including aluminium, copper, tin, and steel. They’re even investigating if ground-up boards could be used in the construction industry.
This ambitious shift by the Royal Mint showcases a creative approach to tackling the e-waste crisis—proving that even discarded tech has the potential to become treasure.
