Dowa to extract metals from used cell phones
by The Daily Yomiuri, The Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan)
5 August 2007 –
Dowa Holdings Co., whose group includes a major nonferrous metal company, is planning to import used mobile phones from Southeast Asia to extract nonferrous metals such as gold and copper from them for recycling, sources close to the company said Saturday.
The Dowa group also plans to dispose of harmful substances being used in such phones, they said.
The plan will be a joint project with the Geneva-based Secretariat of the Basel Convention, which is aimed at controlling transfers of hazardous waste between nations and its disposal, according to the sources.
The Dowa group is known to have the world's most advanced technology for extracting nonferrous metals from electric and electronic parts.
It plans to secure nonferrous metals, for which demand has been growing, and contribute to establishing an international system to prevent inadequate disposal of harmful substances.
Nonferrous metals, such as gold and copper, are needed for making substrates used in mobile phones.
In Southeast Asia, however, used cell phones are transported to China for recycling, where only precious metals are extracted in many cases. Hazardous substances are often left in the phones and are incinerated with ordinary waste, according to the sources.
The Dowa group has the only smelter in Asia capable of extracting individual metals from ores containing several metals such as copper, gold and lead.
The technology also can be used to extract metals from cell phone substrates.
Concerned with the spread of harmful substances from Southeast Asia, the secretariat asked Dowa, through the Environment Ministry, to help collect resources.
Dowa, which will first collect used mobile phones from Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, has begun looking into methods with the secretariat on how to collect such phones and how many can be imported.
Imported mobile phones will be crushed and then put into a furnace to extract nonferrous metals such as gold, copper and lead.
Arsenic, a hazardous material that will be separated, will be buried in the smelter's final disposal area.
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