Iren, the first plant to recover precious metals from electronic waste starts
In Terranuova Bracciolini (Arezzo), a plant capable of processing 300 tonnes of electronic boards per year for 200 kg of gold and silver and 57 tonnes of copper
3' min read
3' min read
The Iren Group inaugurates in Tuscany, in Terranuova Bracciolini (Arezzo), the first plant for the treatment of electronic boards from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The site, which covers an area of about 2,400 square metres, is unique at a national level. It will allow the extraction, selection, recovery and blockchain tracking of precious metals such as gold, silver, palladium and copper through a specially designed mechanical disassembly process and hydrometallurgical treatment.
The treatment capacity of the facility is more than 300 tonnes of circuit boards per year, which will allow an average minimum weekly recovery of about 1 kg gold, 2 kg silver, 0.5 kg palladium, 500 kg pure copper metal and between 600 and 700 kg copper powder, thus reaching almost 200 kg of precious metals and 57 tonnes of copper per year.
The territorial proximity
.Today, more than 90% of the electronic boards recovered in Italy are destined for export, so the Iren Group's new plant is in an innovative direction of circularity and territorial proximity. In fact, in addition to contributing to the economic development of the area, the Group's activities will be able to foster synergies with Arezzo's important goldsmith district, which will be able to use the recovered materials without any further processing.
The plant, which already holds authorisation for End of Waste requirements, reduces energy consumption and emits at least three times less CO2 than conventional mining processes.
How the treatment is carried out
.In the first thermo-mechanical separation phase, the circuit boards are heated up to 220 °C to facilitate the separation of the various components. These are then further separated by size and finally shredded. The second process concerns the recovery and chemical refining of metals, where the shredded electronic components go through leaching stages (leaching), which through chemical reactions with various acid solutions allow the non-noble metals such as iron, lead, tin, aluminium and copper to be extracted first, followed by silver, gold and palladium. Copper is purified through an electrolytic process, silver is turned into silver chloride and then cast into ingots, and gold is purified and turned into 24-carat ingots. Finally, palladium is recovered in the form of salt dissolved in a liquid solution.
