Britain’s Royal Mint is chuffed about turning electronic waste into gold jewellery

Discarded computer motherboards acquired by the Royal Mint, in Llantrisant, outside Cardiff, Wales. The UK’s Royal Mint has undergone a transformation to avoid becoming obsolete — by recovering precious metals from electronic waste and turning that metal into jewelry. — ©2025 The New York Times Company

For more than 1,000 years, the primary purpose of Britain’s Royal Mint has been to make coins. It has forged into metal the likenesses of England’s kings and queens from Alfred the Great, the ninth-century king of the West Saxons, to King Charles III. But as the use of cash steeply declines, the mint is undergoing a vast transformation to avoid becoming obsolete.

Its new purpose: recovering precious metals like gold from electronic waste and turning that metal into jewellery. Here’s how.