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Lingohack

Intermediate level

Going for gold in e-waste

Episode 220330 / 30 Mar 2022

The story…

Going for gold in e-waste

Learn language related to…

chemical processes

Need-to-know language…

components – the various parts of an object

extract – take something out forcefully

heated – made hot 

end result – final outcome of a process 

recover – get something back that was lost 

Answer this…

What does the Royal Mint do?

Transcript

How do you turn electronic waste like this into gold?

The Royal Mint, whose job it is to make coins for the UK, has found a way to do exactly that. First, they take the electronic components from laptops and phones and place them in a secret solution. 

The chemicals extract what’s inside and produce this brown powder. It’s then heated for 30 minutes at more than 1,000 degrees Celsius. The end result is pure gold!

Matthew James, Head of R&D, The Royal Mint
We’re hoping to recover all of the metals on the board. Primarily gold to start with, but we are looking at copper, nickel, tin, particularly tin, and some silver.

More than 50 million tonnes of e-waste, that’s waste from old electronics products, is produced worldwide each year. But only 20% is recycled.

Experts believe that as much as 7% of the world’s gold may be contained in e-waste. And by extracting it, that gold can be used for coins like these.

Did you get it?

What does the Royal Mint do?

The Royal Mint makes coins for the UK.

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