Turning E-Waste into Opportunity

Disused electronics contain around 7% of the world’s gold, yet only 18% of this is currently recycled.

E-waste is one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the world. With e-waste volumes expected to rise by 25% in the next decade, The Royal Mint saw both a challenge and an opportunity.

Why E-Waste?

We knew we couldn’t just be another player in a broken system. Traditional recycling methods often involve shipping printed circuit boards overseas to be smelted, generating significant CO2 emissions and environmental harm. Margins are thin, the supply chain is fragmented, and vast amounts of material end up incinerated or in landfill.

If we were to enter this market, it had to be with a process that was both commercially viable and environmentally transformative.

Enter Excir: A Modern Alchemy

After an extensive global search for disruptive technologies, we discovered Excir, a Canadian clean-tech startup with a groundbreaking solution. Their patented chemistry can strip 99% of the gold from circuit boards and SIM cards within seconds, at 99.9% purity—and the process is recyclable.

This solved one part of the puzzle, but simply extracting surface gold wasn’t enough. It risked creating more waste, and at The Royal Mint, we wanted a total solution: a process that dealt with the entire board and reclaimed every material.

Building a World-First Solution

Working alongside Excir, our team spent over a year developing a fully circular process at lab, pilot, and now industrial scale. The result is a first-of-its-kind plant that can reclaim all materials from printed circuit boards (PCBs) without smelting, incineration, or overseas shipping. Even the syngas produced is used to generate energy for the site, making the process 99% more environmentally friendly in CO2 terms than traditional methods.

Our first plant can process 4,000 tons of PCBs annually, recovering around 500 kilograms of gold—while also reclaiming copper, silver, plastics, and fibreglass for reuse. And crucially, it can handle every type of PCB, from toys to government hardware.

Creating Value Across the Chain

What makes this breakthrough so powerful is the way it benefits every player in the market.

• Suppliers gain faster cash flow—weeks instead of months—and the assurance of working with a secure, ESG-credible partner.
• Brands and recyclers improve their sustainability credentials, helping them win contracts and meet net-zero goals.
• Governments and military organisations benefit from the unmatched security of The Royal Mint, a name synonymous with trust.

Beyond that, the reclaimed materials themselves carry added value. Green copper trades at a premium. Recycled silver is in demand for luxury goods. Instead of commodities, we’re offering high-value, provenance-rich materials that support the circular economy.

A Circular Future

This is just the beginning. We plan to build plants around the world, scaling the technology globally and ensuring countries can handle their own e-waste sustainably within their borders.

At the heart of it all is a simple but powerful idea: by closing the loop on e-waste, we can reduce CO2, protect natural resources, and create new value streams for industries worldwide.

The Royal Mint has been around for over 1,000 years. Our mission now is to make sure we’re contributing to the next 1,000 by building a greener, more sustainable future. And we know we can’t do it alone—so we’re opening the door to partners, innovators, and collaborators who share the same vision.

Because solving one of the world’s biggest waste challenges isn’t just good business—it’s the right thing to do.