Why Recycle Old Gold Jewellery?
The popular images of gold miners from the Gold Rush panning for gold nuggets in a mountain stream bear almost no resemblance to the way gold is mined today. Most rich veins of gold have been exhausted. Today, gold mining is as much about chemistry as it is about a shovel and pick axe. This is because gold is now primarily found in very low concentrations, less than 10 grams per ton. The only way to extract gold found in such small quantities is to create large open-pit mines through blasting and excavating large amounts of ore. Gold mining is one of the world’s dirtiest industries. It uses cyanide, generates heaps of wastes and leaves a long-lasting scar on landscapes and communities. The gold required to produce just one gold ring generates over 20 tons of waste. 80% of all gold is used to make jewellery so it makes sense to recycle old gold jewellery so that the gold contained within the jewellery can be reused.
