Recycling of gold - In depth analysis

Main benefit of gold recycling is that it does not lead to degradation in quality. This means that gold that was mined thousands of years back is just as good as that mined yesterday. It is possible to recycle this gold and repurpose it without requiring any new mining.

Electronic wastes these days form the biggest source of gold that should be recycled. As we dump any kind of electronics like televisions, iPads, iPhones and other classy gadgets, we are throwing away gold. These can be recycled to get fresh gold that can then be used to make other new gadgets.

This amount of gold is huge. Not much gold that has ever been mined has been lost. In fact, it is only 3,600 tons that cannot be accounted for of all the gold mined. The rest of the gold, roughly 167,700 tons, is still traceable. Roughly a half of this has been used in making jewelry while the rest is safely locked in central bank vaults. These are used for making products like dental fillings and iPhones and others are held by investors.

As of 2012, the total amount of gold recycled or reused was less than 3% of the total supply of gold. If only 5% of the total existing gold could be recycled, the world demand for gold would have been met a long time ago.

Find out the benefits of gold recycling

First thing we want to mention is environment protection - Today, gold is mined using Open Pits Methods. The methods involve excavating as well as blasting huge holes on the surface of the earth. Surprisingly, only 10g of gold can be got from a ton of rock. This means that the potential for environmental degradation is massive when gold is mined and not recycled.
No toxic substance - Using cyanide in gold mining is a big cause for worry for environmentalists. This is because the compound is highly toxic not just to animals but humans alike. Recycling does not need any of cyanide, which means there is less toxic substances to people and wildlife. It is defined as gold that has been previously refined and it comes from many places including post-consumer products, gold-bearing products, scrap and waste metals and other sources. The origin of recycled gold is considered to be the point in the gold supply chain where the gold is delivered to the refiner or recycler.

Since refineries often collate gold from multiple sources it has been very difficult to reliably trace the source.

Sources of Gold for Recycling - Gold is used to create jewelry and coins, as dental fillings and bridges and in industrial and electronic applications. Gold jewelry and coins are often recycled through brick-and-mortar dealers or mail-in programs that pay individuals for the unwanted gold. Gold recycled from fillings and other dental work is often collected by dentists and sent to a recycler. Significant quantities of gold are found in catalytic converters and circuit boards, which can be recycled by municipalities or commercial collectors.

Recycling Jewelry and Coins - The first step in recycling gold jewelry and coins is sorting out the purities of gold, measured in karats, with 24 karats representing pure gold. The quantity of impurities can be assayed with an acid kit, electronic tester, X-ray fluorescence spectrometer or melting point test. Once the gold is sorted, it will be melted in a crucible at around 1,064 degrees Celsius (1,947 degrees Fahrenheit) and either poured into bars marked by purity, or further smelted to remove impurities. Smelting is a process where impurities are burned off, or a flux is added to react with impurities and separate them from the pure metal.

Recycling Electronics - Recycling gold from industrial and electronic waste is less straightforward because the gold is embedded in a metal or plastic housing and may only be two percent by weight. Once the pieces containing the precious metal have been stripped, several options exist for processing. The first is chemical stripping with a compound that reacts with the gold. The second option is to melt down the metal components, cool them and grind them up. Both processes require further extraction and purification through smelting.

Dental Gold Recycling - The gold found in pulled or discarded fillings, bridges and casting molds can be collected by dentists and sent to a recycler. The purity of dental gold is usually 16 karat, but it is slightly more complicated to recycle than jewelry because it may include nonmetal content like tooth enamel or porcelain. The recycler will use a process like acid reduction or reverse electroplating to extract the gold from the nonmetal elements. The extracted gold can then be formed into bars or further refined.