Page 9 - Bullion World Volume 03 Issue 07 July 2022

Bullion World | Volume 5 | Issue 09 | September 2025

1. Why Circular Economy Matters social, and governance (ESG) standards, these
for Precious Metals facilities ensure that the recovered Gold or Silver is
as pure as any mined equivalent.

World Gold Council reports that global annual gold • Reintroduction: The refined metal returns as
demand is upwards of 4500 T and for India, the investment bars, coins, or raw material for
demand varies between 800-1000T per year. With jewelers, manufacturers, and industries thereby
limited gold reserves, meeting this demand is not an completing the loop.
easy task. Mining one ton of gold ore typically yields This cycle doesn’t just conserve natural resources,
less than 10 grams of gold. In contrast, academic but it also creates trust and transparency in the
studies have reported that one ton of discarded mobile marketplace. Consumers can purchase with
phone waste can yield 340g gold, 3.5 Kg Silver, confidence, knowing their gold or silver may have been
140g palladium and 130 kg Copper1. This disparity responsibly recovered from existing stocks rather than
underscores the opportunity: the metals India needs mined at environmental cost.
are already circulating in its economy locked in old
jewellery, electronic scrap, and industrial residues. 3. The Indian Context:
Tradition Meets Innovation
2. How Circularity Works in Practice
India’s relationship with precious metals is centuries
Circularity in precious metals is not a single step but an old, but its refining and recycling story is still evolving.
ecosystem of interconnected processes: Traditionally, recycling happens largely through
• Collection: Old Jewellery, coins, and bullion informal channels such as local jewelers melting old
have to be brought back into the system through ornaments, or scrap dealers dismantling electronics.
authorized buyback channels. Other sources like Although this ensured that some material was
electronic waste such as mobile phones, laptops, recovered and reused, it often lacked efficiency, purity,
circuit boards, industrial slags and sludges, and environmental safeguards.
automotive catalysts, spent industrial catalysts etc.
can also become significant sources of secondary Circularity, in many ways, is a rediscovery of what
precious metals in India. India has always practiced. For generations, families
• Sorting and Logistics: Materials must be have repurposed heirloom jewellery, melted and
segregated, transported securely, and processed recast silver utensils, and repaired household goods
in compliance with regulatory standards. rather than discarding them. These habits reflected an
• Advanced Refining: At the heart of the circular ethos of continuity and renewal, the principles that the
economy are state-of-the-art refineries like circular economy now reimagines through technology,
MMTC-PAMP, which use advanced metallurgical scale, and formal systems.
processes to recover pure metals from complex
waste streams. With world-class environmental, Today, with rising demand and policy support, India
is formalizing and scaling its recycling ecosystem.
Accredited refineries with global certifications like
MMTC-PAMP, have raised the bar on transparency,
purity, and sustainability.

4. Environmental and Economic Benefits

The advantages of circularity extend far beyond the
metals themselves:
• Energy savings: OECD policy paper2 indicates
that recycling metals from secondary sources like
scrap uses upto 60-97% less energy compared to
mining thereby contributing to decarbonization.
• Waste reduction: Recovering metals from e-waste
and jewellery scrap in environmentally sound
manner prevents toxic leakage into soil and water.

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