Precious metals from e-waste, Empa Quarterly Magazin, Future Swiss raw-materials

Indium, neodymium and gold are natural resources that can be found in many electronic devices. At the same time, the three substances are elements that rarely occur in nature. What happens to the valuable materials when they are no longer needed? And how much of these elements can be found in mobile phones, computers and monitors that are currently in use? Empa researchers have investigated these questions.