Yes, gold can be recovered from old circuit boards—but The Royal Mint’s operation is an industrial service for businesses supplying clean, separated boards, not a way for the public to extract gold from household electronics. The facility at Llantrisant, South Wales, officially launched in August 2024. The Mint says its recovered gold is used in its 886 jewellery range.
How does The Royal Mint recover gold from circuit boards?
The Mint’s Precious Metals Recovery facility uses patented chemistry developed by Canadian clean-tech partner Excir. The Mint said the process operates at room temperature when it unveiled the facility in 2024. Its public materials describe the process at a high level; they do not disclose the chemical formulation or enough detail to reproduce it.
The facility was announced as a 3,700-square-metre plant at the Mint’s Llantrisant site. This is a specialised operation designed for circuit-board feedstock, not a household extraction method. The Mint’s claims about its process and facility are operator statements, not an independent environmental comparison with other recovery routes. The Royal Mint’s 2024 facility announcement
How much does the facility process?
The Royal Mint stated a capacity of up to 4,000 tonnes of printed circuit boards per year at the 2024 unveiling. Its 2024–25 annual report later said the facility processed approximately 1,500 tonnes during the year and that 110 suppliers of end-of-life technology had been onboarded. Capacity is a stated maximum, not the amount processed: the annual report’s throughput figure is the reported operating volume. Both figures come from the facility operator. The Royal Mint’s annual reports
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What circuit boards can suppliers send?
The service is aimed at organisations in the e-waste supply chain, including authorised treatment facilities (AATFs), original equipment manufacturers, local government and retailers. The Mint’s guidance says boards must be:
- Clean and removed from their original equipment.
- Free of batteries and other contamination.
That means the service is for prepared printed circuit boards, not whole phones, laptops or mixed electronic waste. Suppliers should check the Mint’s requirements and arrange service directly rather than sending material without agreement. The Royal Mint’s business recycling service
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What materials come out of the process?
The Mint says gold recovered at the facility is used predominantly in its 886 jewellery range. Its recovered-materials information also names silver, palladium, copper, iron, steel, aluminium, capacitors and glass fibre among the materials recovered from circuit boards. The published list identifies outputs; it does not provide independently verified recovery rates for each material. The Royal Mint’s precious-metals recovery information
Can you take old electronics to The Royal Mint?
No. The facility is not open to the general public as a drop-off point or for general tours. The Mint says volume feedstock partners may arrange individual visits, while smaller suppliers may be able to join group tours. If you are an individual with unwanted electronics, use an appropriate local or retailer take-back route instead; do not take devices to Llantrisant expecting the Mint to accept them. The Royal Mint’s visitor information
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What the figures do—and do not—show
The available figures establish that the Mint has built and operated a substantial circuit-board recovery facility, and report its capacity, annual throughput and supplier onboarding for the stated periods. They do not establish how its environmental performance compares with smelting or other recycling routes. The Mint’s public descriptions do not provide an independent life-cycle assessment, measured emissions or energy savings, or a full account of residual materials. Those comparisons would be needed to rank recovery routes on environmental grounds.
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