Researchers find clean way to recover gold from old phones

7% of the world’s gold now lies trapped in cell phones, TVs and computers. Now researchers in Britain have devised a way to mine that treasure.

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh say they have invented a simple and efficient extraction method to recover the 300 tons of bullion that goes into electronics each year  without using toxic chemicals, according to the Financial Express.

“We are very excited about this discovery, especially as we have shown that our fundamental chemical studies on the recovery of valuable metals from electronic waste could have potential economic and societal benefits,” said lead researcher Jason Love, Professor at University of Edinburgh’s School of Chemistry.

Current methods for extracting gold from old gadgets are inefficient and can be hazardous to health, as they often use toxic chemicals such as cyanide, the researchers said.

The electrical waste – including phones, televisions and computers – contains as much as seven per cent of all the world’s gold. The precious metal is a key component of printed circuit boards.

By unravelling the complex chemistry underpinning the extraction process, the Edinburgh team discovered a compound that could be used to recover gold more effectively.

Printed circuit boards are first placed in a mild acid, which dissolves all of their metal parts. An oily liquid containing the team’s chemical compound is then added, which extracts gold selectively from the complex mixture of other metals.

The findings, published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, could aid the development of methods for large-scale recovery of gold and other precious metals from waste electronics, the team said.

Improving how the precious metal is recovered from discarded electronic devices could help reduce the environmental impact of gold mining and cut carbon dioxide emissions, the researchers said.

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