The Royal Mint / The New York Times.

A fascinating commission at The Royal Mint for The New York Times.

The Royal Mint has been making coins for over 1000 years but now it has turned it’s endeavours to recovering precious metals, such as gold, from e-waste. The Mint moved to it’s current site in Wales from London during the 1960s. It processes around 4500 tons of e-waste from tvs, computers etc each year.

Due to the pandemic, the demand for new coins almost vanished the Mint recently ceased making foreign currency. It is still making British coins but its survival rests on the success of its precious metal recovery plant. The CEO, Anne Jesse, predicts the company’s new business lines -e-wates recycling and jewellery production – will take over, as the desire for more sustainable and ethically sourced goods increases.

Once the gold is leached from the materials, it then goes through other processes at the in-house lab. The results looks like ground coffee, which is then filtered to retain the gold powder – 100g is worth about £6700. Eventuall the gold is returned to The Royal Mint, where several jewellery technicians at the on-site workshop, design and produce handmade pieces that sold in the musueum shop and also in the flagship store in Mayfair, London. The line is called 886 – the year the Mint first started producing coins. https://www.nytimes.com/card/2025/01/01/business/uk-royal-mint-jewelry