What is urban gold mining, and why is it so important? Japan is very well-known for its electronics industries, but the country has few natural resources to support the high production and consumption of their goods. More than 85% of Japan’s 128 million inhabitants use mobile phones, and mobile phone recycling has become more popular in recent years.
According to a study by the recycling firm Yokohama Metal Co Ltd, a tonne of mobile phones can yield 150 grams of gold – whereas traditional gold mines yield only around 5 grams of gold per tonne of ore. Old electronic devices also contain small amounts of silver, iridium and copper, which makes urban gold mining a very lucrative business.
However, only about 13 percent of electronic items are recycled when disposed of. The Japanese government is trying to encourage consumers to recycle more of their old electronic devices. They are also looking at ways to excavate landfills in order to mine gold and other metals from them.
When electronic devices are recycled, gold and the other metals are extracted, melted down into gold bars, and then sold to jewellers, investors and even back to the companies that produce electronic devices.
Other countries are also jumping on the urban gold mining bandwagon. The amount of gold that is readily available to be mined is dwindling, and so to keep up with our consumption of gold it is necessary to explore alternative options. We at Postal Gold wholeheartedly support recycling, as you may well already know! Now we don’t suggest that you start tinkering with old mobile phones in order to extract the gold from them – the amount of gold in one mobile phone isn’t enough to be worth the effort of extracting it – and besides, extracting gold from electronic devices involves many harsh industrial chemicals, so it’s best to leave it to the experts!
However, if you have any other scrap gold lying around – for example broken jewellery or dental gold – you can send it in to Postal Gold. Postal Gold is a cash for gold company, and sending in your old gold to us is a good way to make some extra cash.
Follow Postal Gold!