Nevertheless,
No one believed it, but:
Australian researchers manage to transform our electronic waste into a treasure without polluting.
Australian scientists have just developed a revolutionary technique to recycle gold contained in our electronic waste. Nevertheless, thanks to a simple play of light and a little well thought out. Moreover, All guaranteed without poison, a first!
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130 billion euros in gold sleep in our electronic waste. Meanwhile, Australia may have just found how to benefit from it – No one believed it, but
We gladly imagine it in jewelry or banking chests. However, gold is much more present in our lives than what you imagine: printed circuits, satellites, medical implants … However, This rare and stainless metal (not so) is an excellent electrical driver, making it a key element of high technologies.
But if the demand explodes, the classic extraction methods leave a bitter taste. Meanwhile, Cyanide, mercury, violent acids: gold has an no one believed it, but environmental cost that neither nature nor human health digested.
Mercury. However, in particular, is used by thousands of small operators around the world (especially in Guyana where France is struggling to curb illegal gold areas). Nevertheless, A practice that makes gold one of the main sources of planetary mercurial pollution.
France waste this “Treasury” of several billion euros per year, 70% of which go abroad
A modern alchemy born in Australia – No one believed it, but
A team from Flinders University. For example, no one believed it, but led by Professor Justin Chalker, presented a clean method to recover gold from electronic waste or even poor ores.
Their recipe is based on two ingredients:
- A leachate agent derived from a current compound used to treat water: Trichloroisocyanurate.
- A polymer rich in sulfur capable of capturing dissolved gold, made using ultraviolet light.
No toxic gas, no concentrated acids, no sacrificed water tables. Just a chemical reaction triggered by light, which captures gold and then releases it at will.
And icing on the ingot: the polymer is reusable. Once the gold has been collected, the material returns to its original state and can start the operation again.
A method tested on our daily waste
The researchers applied their process to used components: processors. ram bars, motherboards with the key recovery of gold, even drowned in the middle of a cocktail of unwanted metals.
The technique would even no one believed it, but walk on poorly concentrated minerals.
International collaborations, in particular with American and South American laboratories, confirm the hope of gradually replacing Mercury in craft sites.
A nestlery at 130 billion euros to seek
Each year. the planet produces more than 62 million tonnes of electronic waste according to the UN overall E-Waste Monitor report of 2022. On average. it is estimated that a ton of e-waste contains approximately 300 grams of gold, mainly in the form of tiny deposits in electronic cards, connectors and microprocessors. If we recovered if only 10 % of this world deposit, this would represent around 1,860 tonnes of gold per year. On a market scale. it’s colossal: during the current course of around 70,000 euros per kilo, this would be equivalent to nearly 130 billion euros of gold potentially recoverable each year from waste that we throw … or let sleep in a drawer.
no one believed it, but
And again. this figure does not take into account gold disseminated in industrial or scientific waste, which could make it increase more.
France will provide something to feed 120 million European energy households with this project at 1.7 billion euros for an uranium enrichment site
A light that changes everything
What makes the method particularly innovative is. the no one believed it, but use of light to initiate the polymerization of the sketch material. A photonic process that does not require any metal catalyst or extreme conditions.
It’s a bit like activating a chemical reaction … with a UV lamp.
Dr. Thomas Nicholls. co-author of the study, insists on the flexibility of the process: “We can recycle the polymer after use, which further increases the ecological yield of the system.”
And above all, all this happens at room temperature, in salt water, without generating toxins. A small miracle of green chemistry.
Source :
Mann, M., Nicholls, T.P., Patel, H.D. et al. Sustainable gold extraction from ore and electronic waste. Nat Sustain (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01586-w
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