Your smartphone has real gold, scientists share 3 simple steps to recover it safely

gold smartphones

It might sound surprising, but your smartphone actually has real gold inside it. Gold is used in tiny amounts in phones, laptops, and other gadgets because it’s really good at conducting electricity and doesn’t rust.

Now think about how many old phones and broken gadgets are lying around in drawers, landfills, and recycling bins. That’s a huge amount of gold just sitting there, wasted. The world is facing a serious e-waste problem. In 2022 alone, the world produced 62 million tonnes of electronic waste, and it’s expected to grow to 82 million tonnes by 2030. That’s like millions of trucks full of dead gadgets circling the planet.

The good news is, scientists have now found a safe and simple ways to recover gold from old phones and electronics. Their study, published in Nature Sustainability, explains exactly how the process works.

It all happens in three simple steps.

The first step is called gold dissolution. Scientists use a special acid mixed with a catalyst that helps dissolve the gold from the phone’s circuit boards and parts.

The second step is called gold binding. Here, they add a material known as a polysulfide polymer. Think of it like a sponge that attracts and holds onto just the gold, leaving everything else behind.

The third step is gold recovery. The scientists heat or break down the sponge-like material, and the result is pure gold that can be reused.

The best part is that this method doesn’t involve any dangerous chemicals like cyanide, which are often used in traditional gold mining. It’s safer for the environment and safer for people. Plus, this process works not only on e-waste like phones and laptops but also on natural gold ores.

This could change the way the world handles e-waste. Right now, only one percent of rare earth materials are recovered from electronic waste. The rest is lost. This new method could help recover valuable materials while also cutting down the mountains of e-waste piling up every year.

So before you throw away that old phone, remember — it’s not just junk. It’s a tiny goldmine, waiting to be recovered.