There is more gold per tonne in the average mobile phone than in the ores that the raw metal is extracted from. A well-known statistic, and one that is frequently quoted, but ultimately not particularly meaningful in the context where separating materials in mobile phones is expensive and where the quantities of gold used continue to get smaller. However, a University of Edinburgh study now claims to have found a simple chemical method that could salvage larger quantities of gold from disused devices at scale.
Gold is a key a component of the printed circuit boards found inside electrical devices, it has even been suggested that over 5% of all of the world’s gold is contained within electrical waste.
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh believe that they have developed a simple extraction method, which doesn’t require the use of any toxic chemicals and recovers gold more efficiently than current methods at a lower cost. The extraction process is described in a blog post on the University’s website:
By unravelling the complex chemistry underpinning the extraction process, the 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.
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