Recycling iPhone yields more gold than mining ore

iPhones and phones in general contain gold as well as many other precious metals, but we often throw them away every time we change a new device.

Recycling phones is more economical than mining ore Reuters

According to Daily Mail, In the UK, nearly 5 million people confirm they throw away their old phones when they no longer need them, an action that contributes to environmental pollution because harmful chemicals in the device are disposed of naturally without recycling. Some must be mentioned as mercury in the battery, liquid crystal display or circuit board; lead in detail joints; beryllium in battery contacts and electronic connectors; Arsenic, silica in processing chips…

Therefore, users are encouraged to take their old phones no longer in use to recycling facilities instead of throwing them away. “A recycled phone saves 258 kilograms of raw materials,” says recycling company Back Market.

In fact, underneath the plastic shell of each phone is a “treasure” containing gold, silver and many rare elements on Earth. For example, each iPhone contains approximately 0.034 g of high-quality gold (equivalent to a value of 2.1 USD), 0.34 g of silver, 0.015 g of palladium and a microscopic amount of platinum.

Back Market calculations show that for 1 ton Iphone recycled, the amount of gold recovered is 300 times that of mining a ton of ore. With the same amount, one can get 6.5 times more silver (also compared to 1 ton of silver ore). Gold is used to coat the electronic circuitry of the phone, while silver is found in the many different metal elements that make up the device.

In addition, one million cell phones contain nearly 16 tons of copper wire, 15 kilograms of palladium and many rare Earth elements that are difficult to mine and refine. According to WaterCalculator, to make a smartphonethe entire process requires more than 12,000 liters of water, enough to fill a commercial oil tanker.

Smartphones and laptops are identified as two of the main sources of electronic waste today. About 1.2 million tonnes of equipment in these two categories is produced each year in the UK, enough to fill six Wembley stadiums.

In March 2022, Royal Mint – the UK’s national mint company announced plans to build the first factory in Vietnam world specializes in recovering gold separated from electronic boards. The company expects to process 90 tons of circuits per week, earning hundreds of kilograms of gold a year. High quality gold will be reused by Royal Mint.