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Gold mining can have vast negative environmental impacts, including deforestation and mercury contamination. Each kilogram of gold also requires an average of 265,000 litres of water to be produced. Gold is a valuable, useful, resource, particularly in the electronics and jewellery industries, and demand for it is unlikely to disappear.
However, there could be a more environmentally friendly solution to this.
Research suggests that there are 202,000 tons of gold hidden away in jewellery boxes, vaults etc. across the world.
This huge resource of stockpiled gold could supply industries’ needs for the foreseeable future as, currently, only around 4,300 tons are mined for use per year. If we decided to just recycle and trade existing gold, rather than mining new, we could potentially meet demand without causing further environmental damage.
The company I purchase all my precious metals from now only sells recycled gold. It also has an excellent scrap program which allows me to have almost no waste from the metalworking part of my business, as I sell my waste metal to them which they re-process. Recycled precious metals are not inferior in quality, they still have the same composition, all they are is less damaging to the environment.
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