Gold: recycling surpasses mining by 700 per cent
ESG Arnulf Hinkel, financial journalist – 10.02.2025
According to the recently published ‘Gold Demand Trends 2024’ by the World Gold Council, mine production of gold rose by just one per cent year-on-year in 2024, while recycling of the precious metal increased by 11 per cent over the same period – with an upward trend, since the recovery of gold from scrap gold and electronic waste grew even more strongly in the last quarter of 2024 at 15 per cent compared to the same quarter of the previous year. In total, gold mining increased by 17.1 tonnes to 3,661.2 tonnes, while gold recycling was up 145.6 tonnes, i.e. sevenfold to 1,370 tonnes, increasing the recycling share to 27.5%. This is primarily due to two developments.
Largest recycling volume in twelve years
While urban mining will play an increasingly important role in the future, it is traditionally primarily old gold that determines the recycling volume – depending heavily on the tendency of scrap gold owners to part with their jewellery or gold watches. The continuously rising gold price, up 35 per cent last year, motivated many scrap gold owners to sell – especially in East Asia, where 23.6 tonnes of gold were recycled, followed by Europe with a recycling volume of 8.6 tonnes. At 3.6 tonnes, significantly less gold was recycled in the US.
Many gold mines recorded decline in production volumes
Gold mining in the US decreased by 18 per cent in 2024 year-on-year, in Burkina Faso by 13 per cent, in Indonesia by 12 per cent and in South Africa by 6 per cent. In most cases, more difficult mining conditions due to lower ore grades were responsible for this development. The fact that mine production has nevertheless just reached a new all-time high according to recent estimates is primarily due to increased gold production in mines in Mali, Canada and Uzbekistan. It is uncertain how long these production volumes can be maintained in the face of constantly rising costs. Gold recycling is therefore of enormous importance, not only from a climate and environmental point of view.
