In Japan's landfills, there is enough gold, silver and platinum to propel the country into the top tier of resource-producing countries - along with Australia, Brazil and Canada.
The millions of electronics that are discarded each year, including televisions, mobile phones, MP3 players and computers, have created so-called “urban mines.”
These mines, according to a new survey by the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, have untapped resources that no one has figured out how to extract yet. With all the materials found in the discarded electronics, Japan now has three times as much gold, silver and indium, a thin coating used for LCDs, as the world needs each year. The amount of platinum hidden in them thar landfills is six times as much as global consumption.
The high concentration of precious metals is an indication of two things: consumers in Japan replace their electronic items very quickly and only 13 per cent, or about 550 tonnes a year, are recycled.
For each phone (and about 20 million mobile phones are replaced by the Japanese annually) the remnants of copper, gold, lead, palladium, tin, titanium and zinc could be removed. The Japanese government is now looking at ways to encourage consumers to gather their discarded cell phones, computers and other electronics and recycle them while looking at how to excavate the landfills to mine these metals.
Via: Times Online
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Comments (15)
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written by DennisSC, September 16, 2008
To motivate someone to do something. When in doubt, always appeal to greed. 8)
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written by Steve N. Lee, September 16, 2008
I've read about garbage mining before. It's a wonderful concept - though, I imagine, not a very pleasant job!
When you consider the gigantic amount of garbage dumped in landfills around the world, there's a tremendous opportunity for reclaiming resources. Especially from years ago, before recycling kicked in.
If enterprising companies could find a cost-effective way of digging it out, this could prove to be a major ecological development which could replemish many of the world's dwindling resources.
It's amazing to think that the garbage previous generations threw out as completely worthless could not only spark a multi-billion dollar global industry, but could actually save the world... (Okay, so maybe not on it's own, but it would've sounded a cool way to end this comment!)
Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog http://www.lionsledbysheep.com
and suspense thriller 'What if...?'
When you consider the gigantic amount of garbage dumped in landfills around the world, there's a tremendous opportunity for reclaiming resources. Especially from years ago, before recycling kicked in.
If enterprising companies could find a cost-effective way of digging it out, this could prove to be a major ecological development which could replemish many of the world's dwindling resources.
It's amazing to think that the garbage previous generations threw out as completely worthless could not only spark a multi-billion dollar global industry, but could actually save the world... (Okay, so maybe not on it's own, but it would've sounded a cool way to end this comment!)
Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog http://www.lionsledbysheep.com
and suspense thriller 'What if...?'
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written by Jacob, September 16, 2008
What about that turkey offal thermal condensor that turns things into oil/and or basic nutrients? If they were to process that stuff into one of those plants, all the organic matter and plastic would become oil, and anything remaining would condense into usable material.
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written by mynameisme, September 16, 2008
Can't they send all the trash through a giant spreader and then have a giant magnet, to gather all of the metals. Then alot of metals have different melting temps so they could sort this way.
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written by EV, September 16, 2008
Actually, no. A lot of metals are not feromagnetic, they are not attracted by magnetism. Gold, silver and copper, for instance, will not be pulled by a magnet. Iron, tin and steel will. Also, sorting by melting point will not work as there is generally other material clinging to the metals. There is gold in your cell phone, but it is surounded by plastic.
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written by Bram, September 16, 2008
Umicore have been extracting precious metals from post-consumer electronics waste for a good while now. I don't know how they're doing it, but that at least shows that it can in fact be done.
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written by Tan The Man, September 17, 2008
When in doubt, follow the model Americans have laid out getting people to do things... $$$
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written by anony, September 17, 2008
Let's just wait until we invent nano-assemblers to salvage these landfills and not worry about the raw numbers in the meantime.
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written by Shabam, September 17, 2008
I say we get all the homeless, pay them through thanksgiving dinners and have them separate it all for us normy's
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written by Krazd, September 17, 2008
Definitely a gold mine left untapped. It's going to be a tough job for whoever decides to go for it.
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written by Jiff Mason, September 17, 2008
Gosh always knocking the Japanese. Give it a rest already.
Jiff
www.anonymize.us.tc
Jiff
www.anonymize.us.tc
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written by Rothschild_Is_For_McCain, September 18, 2008
Too bad prices aren't high enough to make it worthwhile right now. But soon they will be. Once the mines in South Africa are tapped out urban mining will take over.
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written by david plof, October 03, 2008
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With the holidays on the way and economy not looking so good, middle America will have to re-evaluate personal spending. One way to help matters would be to look at what has become valuable in these trying times. On average, the American home has over one ounce of unused and unwanted jewelry. I run one of the countries large precious metals recycling companies. If there ever was a time to sell your old GOLD, SILVER, PLATINUM AND STONES, it would be now. www.SELLGOLD.US.com will pay you the guaranteed highest payout for your old jewelry. The spot price of gold has never been higher than this year. So if you are in need of help for this holiday season, we will be there for you. My name is David Plof, sign up for a YOURGOLD pack and I will make sure we take care of you. You can find me and my company at www.SELLGOLD.US.com.
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written by Rev. William R., November 13, 2008
Actually you can seperate the precious metals by metling points even if there is plasitc or other metals mixed in. I know this as I do this all day long & built my own set up. All electronics are force fed into a motified ore grinding machine w/ a certain # of screens in different mesh. Then the ground electronics are run through a high powered magnet to remove all of the metals that are magnetic. Then I add what is left over to a crucible in my furnace & heat to over 6,000 degrees. The plastics burn away & the fatal fumes are sucked up through this modified vacume into a series of filter to filter the air.
Then I take the melted mass out of the crucible & cool it & break off the flux w/ the hammer. Flux removes all impurities from precious metals. I do this process about 3x. While it may seem time comsuming to some, please realize that I am running this process x10 at a time. Finally what left over I run it through a process called amalgamation. This 100% seperates the precious metals (gold, silver, platinum) from the byproducts of other metals like copper, aluminum, etc. Amalgamation is you using mercury to trap the precious metals. When I am done with that I add the mercury soaked metal to a large cuple & heat at 7,500 degrees. This melts all of the mercury into the cuple (cuples absorb impurities) & what is left over is a mix of 24k gold, .999 silver & platinum. There is a little more to this process that I admit I have not added, but you knew how to fully do it, why would any need me. :-)
All in all after an 8hr work day I yield about 3-4 POUNDS of gold, not including all of the other metals.
Then I take the melted mass out of the crucible & cool it & break off the flux w/ the hammer. Flux removes all impurities from precious metals. I do this process about 3x. While it may seem time comsuming to some, please realize that I am running this process x10 at a time. Finally what left over I run it through a process called amalgamation. This 100% seperates the precious metals (gold, silver, platinum) from the byproducts of other metals like copper, aluminum, etc. Amalgamation is you using mercury to trap the precious metals. When I am done with that I add the mercury soaked metal to a large cuple & heat at 7,500 degrees. This melts all of the mercury into the cuple (cuples absorb impurities) & what is left over is a mix of 24k gold, .999 silver & platinum. There is a little more to this process that I admit I have not added, but you knew how to fully do it, why would any need me. :-)
All in all after an 8hr work day I yield about 3-4 POUNDS of gold, not including all of the other metals.
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written by JOE, December 05, 2008
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Phone: 233-27-2085118.
Ghana.
We are legal and reputable Gold Dust selling company based in Ghana.
We have AU GOLD DUST offer for sales in Ghana.
DETAILS:
AU GOLD DUST
QTY: 125KGS
CARAT: 22.5
PURITY: 94%
Looking forward to hear from you soon for Gold business transactions.
Best Regards,
Mr Joe Adu
Skype: metalsgh
Email : info(AT)gmail.com
Phone: 233-27-2085118.
Ghana.
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