Infographics: Mining Cell Phones for Valuable Minerals

Did you know that mining one ton of iPhones would yield 9.72 oz. of gold? What’s more impressive is that this is 324 times more gold than ore from Peru’s Yanacocha gold mine. Humans have had a long history of re-use. In 19th century England, rag-and-bone men collected discarded rags and clothing for cash – these were subsequently turned into cotton paper (higher quality than today’s wood pulp paper).