Gold have been a valuable commodity for centuries. People have found it useful in a number of applications ranging from jewellery, to currency, medical technology and even space technology. However, gold is not available in infinite quantities. To get 10 grams of 24 carat gold, 20 tons of gold ore needs to be mined and refined. The good thing is that gold can be recycled and reused to make new products over and over.
Why recycle?
Gold mining is an expensive process that has an adverse effect on the environment. The chemicals used to leach gold out of the mined ore contain things like cyanide and mercury which are not only dangerous water and air pollutants but they are dangerous to human beings as well.
Sources of gold to recycle
As previously mentioned gold is used in making jewellery, health applications like dental fillings as well as industrial applications like smartphone and tablets.
Some gold is easy to find and recycle like gold from jewellery and gold coins. You can sell old gold and bullion coins to a bullion dealer Melbourne.
Gold is used a lot in electronics but what happens to it when it is obsolete and needs to be thrown out? The constituents of electronics that can be recycled include plastic, glass and metal. Although, almost 100% of electronic waste is recyclable, only a small fraction of gold fraction can actually be reclaimed. Millions worth of gold is dumped along with the electronic gadgets and mobile devices because, getting all that gold from circuit boards is hard to do.
Advantages of gold recycling:
The main advantage of recycling is that it does not degrade the quality of gold. The same gold that was mined hundred of years ago is still as pure as the one mined in recent times. The process of mining for gold involves digging up open pits which affect the environment. It makes the soil in the surrounding area loose leading to erosion. As surface gold becomes scarcer mines may drill deeper into the ground making ground around the mining area unstable.
In a perfect world we would not throw away any gold not only for environmental reasons but because we understand that the supply of precious metals like gold is not infinite, the earth has only so much god to give. Some countries are already worried about reaching peak gold. It is harder and more expensive to keep mining gold and so companies are closing down mining operations. Whilst gold production slows, there is less gold being recycled. The industry is becoming more aware of the importance of supporting gold recycling initiatives and by extension being supportive of gold dealers who buy gold jewellery and gold bullion coins from the public to sell to refineries. It is becoming easier to find a bullion dealer Melbourne who will buy scrap gold along with high quality coins and bars. Recycling gold is important in the gold market, it is what sustains the growing demand for the precious metal.
