Gold recycling growing three times faster than mining

After the volume of gold recovered from jewellery and urban mining (i.e. the recycling of electronic waste) had already grown significantly last year, gold recycling in 2024 is up by a full 12 per cent so far. This is according to the latest figures from the World Gold Council, both compared to the same quarter of the previous year and the last quarter of 2023. And while gold mine production has only increased 4 per cent within the same period, it did reach a new record high of 893 tonnes within three months so far this year.

Gold recycling up 9 per cent in 2023

At 3,644.4 tonnes, gold mining in 2023 reached its second-highest level ever after the record year of 2018. Total gold production rose by 3 per cent compared to the previous year, only one third of which was due to mine production. The other two thirds are attrubutable to strong growth in gold recycling, up 9 per cent year-on-year in 2023. However, last year’s increased momentum in the more climate and environmentally friendly recovery of gold, which further increased over the first months of 2024, is only subordinately due to growing environmental awareness.

High gold price and liquidity bottlenecks fuel recycling

Of the 350.8 tonnes of gold recycled in the first quarter of 2024, a significant part came from China, where the economic after-effects of 2023 are still leading to above-average sales of gold jewellery by private households. Recycling volumes increased more slowly in other Asian countries such as India. Europe and the US saw hardly any private sales of scrap gold to improve household liquidity. Rather, it was the sharp rise in the gold price that proved the main motivation to sell jewellery. Since the gold price rally picked up in March and April, the World Gold Council’s market experts forecast a strong increase in the sale of scrap gold and therefore in recycling in the coming months.