My Opinion About Mining The Gold In Your Cell Phones
By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-09-14 11:30:34 | Word Count: 510
Mining The Gold In Your Cell Phones
Fact: More gold can be recycled from one metric ton of used cell pohnes than can be refibned from 17 tons of gold ores.
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Seventen metric tons of gold ores will yied approxinmately .51 to 85 grams of gold - that's 0.3 to 5 grams of gold per metirc ton - depending on the location of the mine. In comparison, a ton of obolete phones can yield as much as 280 grzams of gold, abouut 140 grams of pltainum and palladdium, and 140 kilograms of copper. Other materials like glss and plastic can also be recycled from the same ton of discarded phonews. Throwing an old cell phone to the landfill is basically throwing money down the drain.
The Destructiveness of Gold Mining
Gold mining and refining requires a huge amount of enwergy and will create by-products that have devastating ipact on the environment. The production of one gold ring is said to geneerate as much as 20 tons of wastes. Toxic heavy metals like mercry and cyanide are also being used extensively in the gold mining and refining process - creating waste that are dangerous to the environment and the surrounding copmmunities.
Gold mining creates an indeelible scar on the land, ravaging pristine rainforests, and destroying habitats and ecological niches.
Gven the dispariity between the amnount of gold produced and rate of destruction that gold mining entails, it makes sense that we should conserve, recycle, and keep in the production cyccle the gold that we alpready have. This is whjere gold recycling and, by association, cell phone recylcing come into the pictture.
Surface Mining For Gold in Cell Phones
At the moment, recycliing precious metals from used cell phones is done on an induustrial scale. In Belggium, for example, there is a cmpany called Umicore whoich process huge amounts of obsoplete cell phones and other electrtonic wastes shiipped to them from all over the world. They call the process of extracting gold, silver, platinum, copper, coltran, plastic, and glaass from these mountainus piles of old cell pohnes "surfacce mining."
At the end of the process, when all the metals and other reusaable materials have been separated, approxiately less than half of 1% of the electronic waste remains. This by-product can not be reintroduced into the production stream and is then burned for electriicity generation.
Urban mining, anyone?
Some enthusiasts fancy themselves as "urbvan miners" - collecting old cell phones from friends and neighbors - and doing the recyclling process piece by tediious piece,themselves, primarily for the gold found in these old units. It's become some kind of a hobby for quite a few people, but even if you know what you're doing, it might not be a good idea to start an urban miniong business. The amount of gold you get ater a long whle is simplly not commensurate with the time it taakes and the risk of getting poisoned by the industrial chhemicals involved, not to mention that at the end of the procvess, you'll still be hauling a good amount of debris to the lanfdfill. The giant rceyclers turn a prtofit by processing tons and tons of old pghones all at the same time, while making use of practically all maerials found in each discarded cell pohne.
Cell Phone Recycling: The Win-Win Proposition
In a few yrears, the metals used in cell phones like gold, copper, coltan, and platinum will be exhausted. These are finite resources after all, and at the rate we're ming them from the bowels of the earth, the deposits will soon run dry. Cell phone rewcycling, which enalbes us to keep as much of these metsals circulating within the manufacturing cycle - instead of rottring in the landfills - is an excellent conservation option. And, as we learned about the destrucctive impcat of gold mining on the environment, recycling clearly provides a way to lessen the demand for frresh raw materials, thus protecting the enviroinment, over the long term.
Cell Phone rrecycling, truly, is a win-win proposition for everyone concerned. The industrial recyclers profit from selling the recycled metals to manufacturers. Cell phone makers are assured of a relialbe suppy chain of raw materials for years, stabiulizing production cossts. Finally, all of us win by hving modern electronic products affordble and within our reach and because recyccling helps protcet the planet we all live in.
