Japanese 10,000 Yen (~$94) Gold Coin From Times Online by Leo Lewis - Japan’s high-tech rubbish dumps - the vast “urban mines” of landfill outside every big city - have grown so huge that the country now ranks among the biggest natural resource nations in the world.
Tens of millions of defunct mobile phones, discarded televisions, PCs and MP3 players conceal a “virtual lode” of hundreds of tonnes of precious metals. An even greater seam may be lurking forgotten - but not yet discarded - in Japan’s attics and garages.
According to new calculations by the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Tsukuba, Japan has unwittingly accumulated three times as much gold, silver and indium than the entire world uses or buys in a year. In the case of platinum, Japan’s urban mines may contain six times annual global consumption.
The institute’s leading urban mine expert said that if these electronics-rich treasure troves were properly tapped, supposedly resource-poor Japan would suddenly join the likes of Australia, Canada and Brazil in the top five producers of some elements.
The mines have been accumulated because of the extraordinarily high speed at which Japanese consumers replace gadgets. Of these, the 20million mobile phones replaced by the Japanese each year are especially attractive “ores” for urban miners. Only 13 per cent, about 550 tonnes a year, are recycled, with the remainder thrown away or stored in drawers and cupboards.
The circuit boards of each phone contain a smorgasboard of precious metals: in minute quantities there are silver, lead, zinc, copper, tin, gold, palladium and titanium.