UK to build a plant to recover precious metals from electronic scrap

A syndicate of UK firms led by Swindon, a plasma-based environmental company Tetronics, has announced the construction of a major plasma recycling facility for electronic devices and devices.

The project investment is estimated at approximately £ 1 million ($ 1.5 million). The facility will use plasma smelting technology to recover precious metals from electronic scrap. Vale Europe and Metech UK Ltd. are also members of the syndicate. In addition, the project is funded by the non-departmental government agency Innovate UK - in the amount of 884 thousand dollars.

The proposed plant will be the country's first integrated plasma reduction facility for precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum group metals, which will not require additional processing steps. The project is expected to be completed by mid-2016.

Tetronics estimates that the UK will be able to handle around 5.6 million tonnes of electronic products between 2015 and 2020. The presence of precious metals in these products is estimated at more than 30 tons of gold, 600 tons of silver and more than 3 tons of the platinum group. The total value of recovered gold, silver and platinum group metals from these products will exceed £ 1 billion ($ 1.5 billion).

Electronic scrap collected in the country is usually delivered to recycling plants, which are primarily dedicated to the recovery of base metals such as copper. Recovery of precious metals fades into the background in these factories, remaining at lower levels. The new project is expected to significantly increase the recovery of precious metals from electronic scrap.