An urban mine is the stockpile of rare metals in the discarded
waste electrical and electronic equipment
Electronic waste or e-waste describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. Used electronics which are destined for refurbishment, reuse, resale, salvage recycling through material recovery, or disposal are also considered e-waste. Informa ...
(WEEE) of a society. Urban mining is the process of recovering these rare metals through mechanical and chemical treatments.
The name was coined in the 1980s by Professor Hideo Nanjyo of the Research Institute of Mineral Dressing and Metallurgy at
Tohoku University and the idea has gained significant traction in Japan (and in other parts of Asia) in the 21st century.
Research published by the Japanese government's National Institute of Materials Science in 2010 estimated that there were 6,800 tonnes of
gold recoverable from used electronic equipment in Japan.
References
Sources
*
*
*
Further reading
*
Electronic waste
Mining
Recycling
{{electronics-stub