Are you done with that old cell phone you have been using for a couple of years? Before you throw it away, listen to this! First you should look at the metals inside the cell phone.
There could be gold, silver, copper, and many other kinds of metals inside. Some of these metals are at near-record prices, so it could get you a pretty penny! This is called "urban mining" which is where you look through old electronics products to search for valuable gems like iridium or gold. This system is a growing industry world-wide as the prices of such metals are rising.
The recycled materials can be used in the production of new electronic items and the gold and other metals are collected and sold separately to jewellers, speculators, and manufacturers, who use gold as a conductor in the production of circuit boards for mobile phones.
Did you know that discarded mobile phones yield more than 30 times the amount of gold yielded from one gold mine? Research conducted by Yokohama Metal reveals that a tonne of ore from a gold mine produces a mere 5g of gold on average, while a tonne of discarded mobile phones yield 150g or more. In addition, the same volume discarded mobile phones produces approximately 100kg of copper and 3kg of silver, as well as a number of other metals.