Kosaka Smelting and Refining: Creating Gold Mines Out of Old Electronic Devices

With today’s technological advancement, who would have thought that Japan can promote modern-day alchemy? Kosaka Smelting and Refining proved that there are “gold mines” in old electronic devices.

Kosaka is a Japanese firm that produces gold and other valuable metals from old electronics. Kosaka has mastered the art of extracting gold, copper, silver, antimony, and other minerals from old mobile phones. The process can gather up to 20 milligrams of gold from one cell phone unit. Imagine how much gold can a ton of old phones produce.

The dismantled electronics are heated to 1,300 degrees Celsius. At this point, at least 19 different kinds of metals are extracted. Kosaka continues to innovate to extract more. Their target is to extract neodymium, an essential element used to produce magnets.

Kosaka’s innovation is timely, both politically and economically. China, the world’s largest producer of rare-earth minerals has cut 82% of their mineral exports to Japan in recent years. With this eco-friendly concept, Japan continues to have access to rare minerals while promoting recycling to help Mother Earth.