Credit: Mobile Fun
Or not …
The Web is littered with headlines like that above – images too.1,2
A smart phone contains around 30 milligrams of gold.3 Starting to sound like a lot of phones. In fact, a metric tonne is 1,000,000,000 milligrams. So a metric tonne of gold is equivalent to:
1,000,000,000/30 = 33,333,333.333 …
Let’s call it 33.3 million iPhones.
Gold price varies, but at this time, (15:58 Monday 25 April GMT) 30 milligrams of gold is worth $1.20.4 Hard to make a profit, disassembling that many phones for such a small return on each.
On the other hand, a refurbished iPhone, depending on model, sells for hundreds of dollars.5,6
Time for a rethink ...
https://motherboard.vice.com/read/apple-does-not-melt-iphones-into-gold
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1 Fortune: “Apple Has Recovered Millions In Gold From Your Old iPhones”, http://fortune.com/2016/04/15/apple-gold-iphones/
2 Independent: “Apple recovered one tonne of gold by recycling iPhones last year”, http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/apple-iphone-products-devices-gold-recycling-environmental-report-a6987841.html
3 Fairphone: https://www.fairphone.com/2016/01/27/how-we-got-fairtrade-certified-gold-in-the-fairphone-2-supply-chain/
4 goldcalc.com: "Calculated Scrap Gold Value", http://www.goldcalc.com/scrap_gold_value.php
5 GoodPriceMobile: http://www.goodpricemobile.com/prices-drop
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