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Britain's Royal Mint to extract gold from e-waste as part of decarbonising operations

Britain's Royal Mint on Wednesday announced it will draw out gold from electronic waste such as televisions, laptops and mobiles at a new factory in south Wales, offering a more sustainable source of gold and lowering dependence on mining.

The 3,700 square metre (39,826.47 square feet) factory will usage patented chemistry from Canadian clean tech company Excir and has the capability to process up to 4,000 metric heaps (4 million kgs) of printed circuit boards from e-waste every year, Royal Mint stated in a declaration.

The Royal Mint gave no indication on how much gold could be recovered each year.

The factory underpins our dedication to using sustainable rare-earth elements and providing a brand-new source of high quality, recovered gold, Sean Millard, primary development officer at The Royal Mint said.

It allows us to reduce our dependence on mined products and is another example of how we're working to decarbonise our operations.

Gold and other precious metals are extremely conductive and are ingrained in minute quantities in circuit boards.

The business included that the technology uses a more sustainable method to mine premium 999.9 pureness gold.

According to the World Gold Council, gold mine production increased by 3% to a second-quarter record, while recycling rose by 4% to the highest for a 2nd quarter since 2012.

(source: Reuters)