The UK is to get its first commercial refinery for extracting precious metals from electronic waste, which will also be the world’s first to use bacteria rather than cyanide-based processes. A New Zealand startup, Mint Innovation, plans to open the facility within 12 months in Cheshire, in the north of England, after delays caused by the Covid-19 crisis. The UK’s impending exit from the EU has provided an urgent economic need for such a facility – a UN report last month found at least $10bn (£7.9bn) of gold, platinum and other precious metals were dumped every year in a growing mountain of e-waste.
The UK produced more e-waste than the EU average and was “one of the worst offenders for exporting e-waste to developing countries ill-equipped to dispose of it in a socially and environmentally responsible way”, she said. Recyclers in the UK have to send printed circuit boards to mainland Europe to have the precious metals they contain extracted. After Brexit, the costs of doing this are expected to rise.
The UK refinery will initially be able to process 20 tonnes of e-waste per day and, if the demand is there, this can be scaled up. Another plant in the south of England is being considered and a refinery is planned for Sydney, Australia. Jason Love, a professor of molecular inorganic chemistry at Edinburgh University, says technical challenges need to be addressed if the mining of precious metals from electronic waste is to be truly sustainable and environmentally neutral.
Source: Guardian
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