Supply and Demand for Gold

Meet the supply and demand for gold by e-reycling.The electronic use of gold at around 300tpa amounts to about 12% of the total annual mine production of gold. Its efficient recovery from electronic scrap (WEEE) therefore represents a substantial potential recycling resource. 

If we take the case of mobile hones, for example, global sales of 1,300 million in 2008 equates to about 31 tonnes of gold, 325t of silver, 12t of palladium and 12,000t of copper. With batteries, an additional 4,600t of cobalt can be added.

Taking cumulative sales of mobiles up to 2008,this increases to 170t of gold, 1,800t of silver and 70t of palladium. If we add the sales of PCs and laptops, these potential supplies of precious metals equate to a significant proportion of total mine production: 4% for gold, 3% for silver,16% for palladium, 20% for cobalt and <1% for copper. For the broader electronics market, the market supply is more substantial.