UK Royal Mint Pivots to E-Waste Recycling
A centuries-old institution brings cutting-edge solutions to our modern waste crisis. For more than a thousand years, the primary purpose of Britain’s Royal Mint has been to make coins. But as the use of cash steeply declines, to avoid becoming obsolete, the mint is undergoing a substantial transformation. Its new purpose: recovering precious metals, like gold, from electronic waste.
The Royal Mint recently shuttered its business making coins for other countries. It has retained its ability to make British coins, but is betting millions of pounds that the key to its survival is the precious metal recovery plant, which started operating last summer.
The process includes a patented recovery method used to extract gold from e-Waste like phones and laptops. This all takes place at the Royal Mint’s gold recovery plant in the Brecon Beacons, Wales.
Companies and consumers increasingly want goods that are ethically and sustainably sourced. So the Royal Mint is both retrieving the gold and working some of it into new pieces of jewelry.
The Royal Mint partnered with Canadian clean tech startup Excir to bring the technology to the UK. This innovative process recovers over 99% of gold from electronic waste, targeting the precious metals found in the circuit boards of laptops and mobile phones. This new technology selectively extracts these valuable materials in seconds using a mixture of chemicals that operates at room temperature.
This innovation couldn’t come at a more crucial time. Each year, the world generates more than 50 million tonnes of electronic waste, projected to balloon to 74 million tonnes by 2030. Less than 20% of this e-Waste is currently recycled, meaning billions of dollars’ worth of precious metals are being thrown away.
During the Covid pandemic, cash use plummeted. Since then, demand for new coins has nearly evaporated. Last year, the mint issued 15.8 million British coins, a 90 percent drop from the year before. Most of the new coins bear the likeness of King Charles III.
As mountains of discarded smartphones and laptops are becoming the world’s fastest-growing waste stream, this venerable institution is stepping up to the challenge. In a remarkable pivot, the 1,100-year-old cornerstone of British coinage is now a trailblazer in electronic waste recycling.
Innovations like this offer hope as the world grapples with the environmental consequences of our technological advancement. The Royal Mint’s initiative demonstrates that even the most traditional institutions can play a crucial role in developing sustainable solutions. By turning electronic waste into gold, the Royal Mint is securing its future and potentially paving the way for a more regenerative approach to resource management across industries.
This project marks a significant milestone in the institution’s reinvention strategy, transforming it from a traditional coin manufacturer to a leader in sustainably sourced precious metals. As this technology scales up from laboratory to mass production, it will set a new standard for e-Waste processing globally, turning what was once considered trash into literal treasure.
