13,354 tonnes of gold recycled since 2012

Over the last 11 years, more gold has been recycled than stored in the high-security vaults of the two world champions of gold reserves, the US and Germany, combined. According to the World Gold Council, in late 2022 the US central bank Fed held the largest gold reserves by a huge margin at 8,133 tonnes, while the German Bundesbank held 3,355 tonnes, which in sum is still less than the 13,354 tonnes of climate-friendly gold recycled since 2012.

Annual recycling rate varies between 24 and 42 per cent

Even though the share of gold recovered through urban mining – smartphones, PCs, motor vehicles – is increasing, the vast majority of recycled gold, around 90 per cent, consists of high-grade scrap gold such as jewellery. The amount of gold produced via recycling therefore depends primarily on people’s motivation for selling their scrap gold, which can be an attractive gold price or an economic rough patch. Both factors played a significant role in 2009, when so many people parted with their old gold that the recycling rate reached 42 per cent – an all-time record. 2012 was also an above-average year: of the total 4,713.3 tonnes of gold produced, almost 35 per cent were recycled.

Today’s ecological footprint nearly 24 per cent lower

A simple calculation shows how important the expansion of gold recycling is when it comes to climate and environmental protection: the production of one kilo of recycled gold releases less than one-twentieth of the CO₂ emissions caused by the most environmentally friendly mining method. This difference is so significant that the recycling rate of 25 per cent, which has remained fairly constant in recent years, has reduced CO₂ emissions from gold production by almost the same factor, just shy of 24 per cent. Another advantage of the growing gold stock from recycling: investors with a climate-friendly approach have increasing amounts of “green” gold at their disposal. And the number of environmentally conscious investors is steadily increasing. To the extent possible, the gold bars deliverable to Xetra-Gold investors are also sourced from climate-friendly recycled stock.