The present state and problems of precious metals recycling

Abstract

Recycling of precious metals from scraps generated from manufacturing process have been widely done. The recycling process calls for maintenance of confidentiality of the scrap, use of isolated lots for the recycling operation, high recovery rates, short operation time and low treatment costs. In recent years, the recycling process has been facing three additional problems. The first is the reduction in the precious metal content in the scraps because of their substitution by other non-ferrous metals. The second is the contamination of metals that are never contained in natural ores. They have been used for upgrading the product performance, but those contaminations make it difficult to extract and purify precious metals. The third is the enforcement of stringent environmental regulations in Japan, which prohibits the continuous use of certain chemicals such as nitric acid. This paper describes the work carried out by a precious metals recycling company to solve the aforementioned problems.