With over 300 tonnes of gold used in electronics each year, end-of-life electronic equipment offers an important recycling potential for the secondary supply of gold. With gold concentrations reaching 300-350 g/t for mobile phone handsets and 200-250 g/t for computer circuit boards, this "urban mine" is significantly richer than what is available in primary ores. However, the "mineralogy" in scrap products is much different than in the conventional ores in a gold mine: Up to 60 different elements are closely interlinked in complex assemblies and sub-assemblies, and this requires specialised metallurgical processes with extensive offgas treatment to recover gold and a wide range of other metals cost effectively and in an environmentally sound way. Moreover, the logistics to "excavate" and "haul" the scrap products to the concentrator and further to the smelter are much more challenging than in the primary supply chain. Currently, only a small portion of old products is collected and directed into state-of-the art recycling chains. Significant improvements are needed here to fully utilise this secondary metal resource.

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Now that gold catalysis is a valuable and exciting new field of catalysis as a whole, the exploitation of gold catalysts for commercial applications is being pursued. This is being assisted by new work on preparation and utilization methods to increase their durability during use. Other factors, including a substantial increase in investment in gold catalysis R&D, need to be considered before widespread application will occur. We show that new opportunities for commercial exploitation can be monitored via patent mapping, followed by careful examination of key patents.

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