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◼ Gold $48,413 /kg London Metal Exchange cash spotIn a twist on the old saying,
“One man’s trash is another man’s
treasure,” the organizing committee
of the 2020 Summer Olympics
has harnessed the recycling fervor
of Japan’s citizenry to source
precious metals for the medals
that will be awarded at next year’s
games. A two-year collection drive
that wrapped in March netted
almost 79,000 tons of consumer
electronics. The labor-intensive
process of mining metals from
the discarded gadgets has yielded
32 kilograms of gold, 3,500kg of
silver, and 2,200kg of copper and
zinc—enough to produce more than
5,000 medals.79Au
Gold((1)) UnveiledinJuly,thegoldmedal
designedfor theTokyoGames
containsjust 6 gramsof the
preciousmetal—theminimum
requiredunderguidelinesissued
bytheInternationalOlympic
Committee.Therestissilver.
((2)) Yellowcollectionboxes, likethis
oneata governmentbuilding
inTokyo,wereinstalledatpost
officesandon streetcorners
acrossJapan.
((3)) Morethan6.2millionhandsets
weredonatedtotheMedalProject.
((4)) Employeesata facilityin
Kawasakiownedby Field
EnvironmentalServiceInc.,one
of 50 companies contractedto
processthee-waste.A handset’s
circuitboardcontainstiny
quantitiesofpreciousmetals.
((5)) Adissectedcameraandphone
ondisplayata collectionstation.
((6)) Circuitboardsaredunked
intochemicalsolutionsthat
separategoldfromother metals.
Theprocessisrepeateduntilthe
desiredlevelofpurity—99.9%—is
achieved.
((7)) Gold at different stages of the
purifying process.SOME THAT GLITTERS
IS RECYCLED Photos and text by CarlottaCardana
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