Gold Recycling Program

Industrial Mining

Industrial mining such as Kalgoorlie super pit is producing approximately half a gram of gold per tonne of earth mined. According to Wikipedia, Kalgoorlie Super pit processes approximately 15 million tons of soil per year. They extract the gold using global industry normal process which is cyanide leeching. 

To use this process, all the extracted rocks and soil are crushed into powder and soaked in tanks of cyanide to create a slurry. The gold is dissolved, extracted and the slurry is then pumped into tailing dams. Still contaminated with toxic cyanide, they rely on sunlight to break down the chemical which is a very slow process. Keeping in mind that the sunlight doesn’t penetrate the slurry very deeply, so below the surface is millions of tonnes of toxic material. And this is only one mine. 

According to statista.com, the jewellery industry used 1400.8 tonnes of gold for jewellery production in 2020. If you were to try and put that into perspective, let’s say all that gold was made into 14ct gold and each piece had 2.5g of pure gold within it. That would be just short of 958 million pieces of jewellery. Most of which is going to be discarded in the back of a bedroom drawer because it broke or is no longer wanted. All that from a single year of jewellery production. 

Environmentally Concious

With our environmentally conscious alignment and campaigns we are supporting one tree planted which is an international organisation. With every order purchased through Vinny&Charles, we donate the amount required to plant a tree. We are also wanting to increase our sustainability, which is why we have started our initiative of urban mining. To buy in jewellery, silver tea sets, silver diner table wear, in fact anything that contains precious metal. With the aim to become fully self-sufficient for our total precious metal consumption needs, all from recycled material. With a further goal of supplying other industries with recycled precious metals for their needs. 

So the process is that, once we purchase the jewelry, we melt it down and refine it back to its raw elements and extract the gold in its pure state. We then alloy it to what we need it for. 

Refining Goals

The second stage to this project is to acquire our own refining plant which we have already identified and earmarked, because that way we can control the refining process. Why this is important is because our process is also environmentally friendly. There are acids used in the refining process, but ALL the chemicals used are neutralised in specifically made equipment which, at the end of the process and before being disposed of is like dirty dish water. 

Our immediate challenge is to spread the message that we will buy people’s broken and no longer wanted jewellery.