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Why Recycling Your Old Gold Should Be On Your Christmas List

Published Wednesday 28th September 2016

It doesn’t seem two minutes since the August Bank Holiday but already we’re almost in October and the shops are filling up with Christmas stock.

If you’ve started to think about your Christmas shopping, you’re probably also thinking about how you’re going to fund it. This is popular time of year for selling your old, broken and unwanted pieces of gold jewellery because it gives you a bit of extra cash to spend on the festive period.

It’s worth checking your jewellery box for pieces you no long wear, whether that’s because they’re too old fashion or because they’re broken and you never will get around to having them repaired. As long as the item is solid gold – not gold plated – you’ll be able to trade it in for cash.

We also recycle old gold and silver coins and household items, but again only solid silver makes the cut. We don’t take silver plated pieces.

People choosing to recycle their unwanted gold in 2016 have been able to earn some top prices. The gold price has soared this year and that means better returns when you send in your scrap gold – but remember, the scrap gold price will always be lower than the general gold price. That reflects the fact that once an item has been accepted, it has to be weighed, processed and melted down before it can be reused.

Because we’re based in Birmingham’s world famous jewellery quarter, we can get the recycled gold out quickly to jewellers to create something new from it. One of the many benefits of gold is that it can be melted down over and over again without losing any of its value or beauty.

So if you’re looking to earn some extra cash for Christmas, have a look in your jewellery box and get recycling.

High Gold Prices Start Recycling Rush In India

Published Wednesday 21st September 2016

The high value of gold this year has seen a flood of old, broken and stored pieces made from the precious metal coming back on to the market.

India, where the government has been pushing people to recycle their old gold to cut down on the need for expensive imports, has really seen recycling rocket in 2016.

The country, the second biggest gold importer in the world after China, has experienced such a surge in gold recycling over the summer that it has met 45-60 per cent of demand for the precious metal through recycling, according to the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation.

Figures from Commerzbank show that India’s August gold imports stood at 26 tonnes, a fall of 81 per cent compared to the same month last year. Over the first half of 2016, the country imported around half the amount of gold it did in the same period last year.

Bachhraj Bamawla, director of the Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation, told the Wall Street Journal: "At this price, the recycled market will continue. Wedding and festival season is approaching, but the price of gold is a deterrent to demand. Rather, people will sell at these prices. If there is no Indian demand, prices may fall."

It’s estimated that Indian homes and temples have a phenomenal 22,000 tonnes of gold stored in them, and it’s this unwanted gold that the Indian government wants people to part with.

The demand for gold is so high in India because people tend to buy it during festivals from September to November, and again during the wedding season that follows.

Shalini Goel was able to exchange a necklace and bracelets for almost 15 times as much as she paid for them, thanks to the good gold price.

We can’t promise you’ll get such a high return for your old broken and unwanted gold jewellery when you send it in for recycling, but it’s likely you’ll be pleasantly surprised by its value in the current market.

Scottish Scientists Lead The Way With Gold Recycling Breakthrough

Published Wednesday 14th September 2016

A team of Scottish scientists have come up with an effective way of stripping gold out of old computer and smartphone circuit boards.

The University of Edinburgh scientists are aiming to stop gold being sent to landfill by developing a more effective method of recovering it from old electronic circuits. They’ve come up with a mild acid that dissolves all metal parts in the circuit boards and when their specially developed chemical compound is added, they can isolate and recover the gold content.

It’s believed up to seven per cent of the world’s gold stores is inside e-waste such as old phones, PCs and laptops that have been thrown away. The demand for gold for this market is only set to increase as the popularity of smartphones, tablets and laptops shows no sign of diminishing and companies are continually developing newer and better versions of their products.

Around 12 per cent of the world’s gold was being used in electronic gadgets back in 2013, the most recent year there are figures available for. It’s likely the percentage has increased in the three years since.

The team from Edinburgh University’s new extraction method is non-toxic so it ticks the environmentally-friendly boxes too. One of the big issues about gold mining is the cost to the environment, due to the chemicals that are used in getting the precious metals out.

Prof Jason Love from Edinburgh University said: “We are very excited about this discovery, especially as we have shown that our fundamental chemical studies on the recovery of valuable metals from electronic waste could have potential economic and societal benefits.”

Every time you recycle a piece of old, broken or unwanted gold jewellery, you are playing a part in helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the gold industry by making more of the precious metal available to use again. It’s a win-win situation for you …. and the environment.

Japan Plans To Use Recycled Gold For 2020 Olympic Medals

Published Thursday 1st September 2016

The Rio Olympics may only just be over but medal-makers’ thoughts are already turning to where they will source the gold for the next Games in 2020.

The organisers of the Tokyo Games in four years’ time are looking to use recycled gold to make the medals for the Olympics and Paralympics and have already started to talk about sourcing the precious metal.

They’re aiming to use gold, silver and copper recovered from old mobile phones and computers to make the medals, rather than asking mining companies – which is the usual practice – to donate towards them.

Although gold and silver Olympic medals only contain a small proportion of the precious metals and are not solid gold or silver, this will be the first time that an Olympic Games has gone all out to make ‘sustainable’ medals.

Japan has a great international reputation for recycling and it’s reported that around 16 per cent of the world’s recycled gold come from precious metal recovered from electronic appliances in the country, while the same practice accounts for approximately 22 per cent of global recycled silver reserves.

In 2014, 315lbs of gold and 3,452lbs of silver was collected from electronic appliances in Japan. That would be ample to create the medals for the Tokyo Games – in the London 2012 Olympics, 21lbs of gold and 2,667lbs of silver were used to create the medals, according to Fox News.

Although much of the unwanted, broken or scrap gold and silver that we recycle goes back into making jewellery, the electronics business is also a large user of the precious metals in its circuitry.

So when you convert your old gold and silver jewellery into cash, some of it may actually end up hanging around the neck of proud Olympic medal winners in Tokyo in four years’ time.

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