JoeyJoystick
Well-known member
Hi All,
Like most newbies investigating the recycling of e-waste to extract precious metal content I also went looking for some numbers as to how much PMs and PGMs and Copper e-Waste contains.
This is not an easy task. Not because there is no information available, quite the opposite actually. And the numbers that you find vary a lot. It seems to me that there are several reasons for the wide variety in the available numbers. The differences between the various processes, the kind of feed stock and the feed stock sample size are but a few of the variables causing these numbers to vary.
And then I came across some numbers from Umicore in Belgium in a research paper from 2014. I am guessing that many of you have heard of this plant, but for those who have not here I go. The Umicore plant in Belgium is (was?) the largest e-Waste recycling plant in the world. They have invested heavily in both the research and the building of the plant. It is as environmentally friendly as you can reasonably get with todays technology and the emissions are well below local and European standards.
Out of the 16 metals which Umicore produces I will highlight just a few of them, though arguably the most interesting and valuable ones. Here are the numbers: 250.000 metric tons of e-Waste is processed per year. The production rate on a yearly basis is 50 tons of PGMs, 100 tons of Gold and 2400 tons of Silver. At today's market prices this translates to well over 7 Billion (USD), and with a feed of 250.000 tons annually this translates to something like 28.000USD per ton. What makes the number a good average is the 250.000 tons feedstock because this is not a sample anymore.
Additionally, this does not include any of the other metals which they extract, most notably copper which is a significant part of e-Waste. If indeed the copper content is higher than 10% as often reported, this would easily add an additional 140.000.000USD to the tally.
p.s. I have been conservative with the prices I took, just to be on the safe side. I took 5.5USD/kg for Copper, 1.400USD/Oz for Gold, 0.5USD/g for Silver and 1.000USD/Oz for PGMs.
I guess those numbers make even the die-hard pros on this forum look like amateurs. Absolutely no insult intended, because the bottom line is that I truly envy you guys.
Anyways, I thought it was interesting and just wanted to share this with you.
Joey
Like most newbies investigating the recycling of e-waste to extract precious metal content I also went looking for some numbers as to how much PMs and PGMs and Copper e-Waste contains.
This is not an easy task. Not because there is no information available, quite the opposite actually. And the numbers that you find vary a lot. It seems to me that there are several reasons for the wide variety in the available numbers. The differences between the various processes, the kind of feed stock and the feed stock sample size are but a few of the variables causing these numbers to vary.
And then I came across some numbers from Umicore in Belgium in a research paper from 2014. I am guessing that many of you have heard of this plant, but for those who have not here I go. The Umicore plant in Belgium is (was?) the largest e-Waste recycling plant in the world. They have invested heavily in both the research and the building of the plant. It is as environmentally friendly as you can reasonably get with todays technology and the emissions are well below local and European standards.
Out of the 16 metals which Umicore produces I will highlight just a few of them, though arguably the most interesting and valuable ones. Here are the numbers: 250.000 metric tons of e-Waste is processed per year. The production rate on a yearly basis is 50 tons of PGMs, 100 tons of Gold and 2400 tons of Silver. At today's market prices this translates to well over 7 Billion (USD), and with a feed of 250.000 tons annually this translates to something like 28.000USD per ton. What makes the number a good average is the 250.000 tons feedstock because this is not a sample anymore.
Additionally, this does not include any of the other metals which they extract, most notably copper which is a significant part of e-Waste. If indeed the copper content is higher than 10% as often reported, this would easily add an additional 140.000.000USD to the tally.
p.s. I have been conservative with the prices I took, just to be on the safe side. I took 5.5USD/kg for Copper, 1.400USD/Oz for Gold, 0.5USD/g for Silver and 1.000USD/Oz for PGMs.
I guess those numbers make even the die-hard pros on this forum look like amateurs. Absolutely no insult intended, because the bottom line is that I truly envy you guys.
Anyways, I thought it was interesting and just wanted to share this with you.
Joey