Italy second in recycled gold

Surprise: Italy is second in the world for gold reuse. That is, yellow metal previously used and then melted again into ingots. This was revealed by Gioiellis.com, based on data from the World Gold Council. Before Italy there are only the United States and then China and India. The recovery of gold from products and manufactured goods, from jewelery in the first place (perhaps also due to the spread of “gold purchases”), is obviously more likely to occur in countries with high consumption. «Second-hand» yellow metal has become a significant source of supply to the market. In 2012 it generated 1,616 tonnes, the equivalent of 37% of the world’s gold supply.

Use of recycled gold has increased 60% since 2007, when the global total was 1,005 tonnes. The offer was far more interesting than that of mineral production, where development times for research and extraction do not contemplate speed. The downside is that the value of reused metal is more uncertain than that mined. The recycled yellow metal is, in fact, recovered from existing products and does not often provide unambiguous guarantees on purity. Furthermore, there is a lack of data on the ways in which gold is melted and reused.

Oro di seconda mano