iGold

The 21st century was revolutionised by personal technology — and gold played a key role in our ubiquitous adoption of mobile phones and home computers.

Approximately 10 troy ounces of gold — equal to 311g — are used in every 10,000 smartphones. So think twice before tossing your old phone away.

In 2015, Apple alone recovered and recycled 2,204 pounds of gold from broken iPhones (nearly one metric ton), which was worth around 40 million USD at the time.

And it’s not just smartphones: old computers are even more gold-rich than ore. A single metric ton of electronic scrap from PCs yields more gold than 17 tons of gold ore. (Given this, tech firms like Samsung are now recycling old electronics to supplement their own gold supply.)

On a related note: technology accounted for 302.2 tonnes of last year’s gold demand — roughly 8% of the total.

Learn more on CNN, Facts.net, Speciality Metals, DELL, Statista, and Goldhub.