Britain set to get first commercial refinery for extracting precious metals from electronic waste

Britain set to get first commercial refinery for extracting precious metals from electronic waste.

The UK is set to get it first commercial refinery for the sole aim of extracting precious metals from electronic devices that are not being used by it citizens. 

The commercial refinery will break the record of being the world first refinery to use bacteria rather than cyanide-based processes, the UK exit from the European Union has provided an urgent need for such a facility.

A report found out that $10 billion(£7.9 billion) of gold,platinum and other precious were dumped every year in a growing mountain of waste. 

When the Commons Environmental Audit committee launched it inquiry into electronic waste and circular economy last year, Chair Mary Creagh criticized the UK's unsustainable approach to electronic waste and urged them to carry out positive fundamental changes to to their act.

Reports shows that the UK produced more electronic waste than Europe's average and was “one of the worst offenders for exporting e-waste to developing countries that are mostly located in Africa that are not equipped and does not have the standard to dispose the waste properly. 

Mint Innovation, which is a New Zealand start up, plans to build and put the facility into use within 12 months in Cheshire in the northern part of England. 

The refinery will initially be able to process 20 tonnes of e-waste under 24 hours.and can be scaled up if there is increasing demands from the people.

There are other plans to build another plant in the southern part of England and another refinery is also planned for Australia in Sydney. 

A professor of molecular inorganic chemistry at Edinburgh University, Jason Love, criticized the plans of the refinery as he says. 

“What Mint is doing seem very nice but I don't think it ground breaking, The real sticking point is how do you dissolve the metals, the company's selling point is it use of microbes but that is only one aspect of the process, It is using acid too”.

Mint replied saying, 

“Common weak acid are bit of tricky chemistry ”

Mint was setup in 2016 to develop a bio refinery that combines hydrometallurgy and bio technology to extract metals.