The loonies, toonies, nickels and dimes in your pocket may soon be made out of recycled metals from electronic waste, courtesy of a partnership between Montreal-based Enim Technologies Inc. (enim) and the Royal Canadian Mint.

The gold, silver and copper from enim’s planned commercial facility in Montreal, scheduled to begin operations in 2027, could be sent to the Mint to make coins for circulation or collectible sets.

“We saw in the market the momentum for circular solutions that have a positive impact on biodiversity,” Gabriel Trottier-Hardy, director of business development and legal affairs for enim, said in an interview with Sustainable Biz Canada.

enim’s process dunks circuit boards in a batch of acids and bases to separate the valuable metals that can enter the supply chain. Over 95 per cent of the metals are recovered, no toxic waste is produced and the pool of chemicals used in the recycling is reusable, Trottier-Hardy told Sustainable Biz Canada.

The method is intended to reduce the need for mining, an environmentally destructive industry, and chip away at the piles of electronic waste building up in Canada.

The Mint, a Crown corporation in charge of producing and managing Canada’s coins, is "focused on the responsible procurement of metals" and "currently evaluating opportunities to integrate recycled metals in our future processes," Alex Reeves, a senior manager of public affairs at the Mint, said in an email exchange with Sustainable Biz Canada.

Metal from recycled electronics is not currently used by the Mint, but it does refine scrap gold from gold jewelry, old coins and industrial material, and has tested the integration of recycled steel in producing coins for circulation, Reeves added.

It sold 28 tonnes of gold and over 690 tonnes of silver in 2023 according to its annual report for the year. 

Forging the enim-Royal Canadian Mint partnership

enim and the Mint began their partnership in 2024 to meet high demand for environmentally friendly products, Trottier-Hardy said. The Mint toured enim’s 10,000-square-foot demonstration facility in Thetford Mines, Que. with a nameplate capacity of processing 200 tonnes of circuit boards per year, and left with a positive impression of the scale.

The Mint told enim it wants to find ways to reduce carbon emissions and satisfy demand for eco-friendly gold with a local solution, Trottier-Hardy said. Full traceability of the metals will also be a priority, enim said in its announcement.

The upcoming commercial-scale facility will have 50 times the capacity of the demonstration facility at 10,000 tonnes per year, Trottier-Hardy said. At that scale, it is expected to output one tonne of gold, two tonnes of silver, 2,000 tonnes of copper and 100 kilograms of palladium annually.

Electronic waste from Canada and the northeast U.S. will be fed into the site, and a large portion of the precious metals generated by the commercial facility is expected to be sent directly to the Mint.

enim’s revalorization is recovering value from circuit boards and the metals that would otherwise languish in landfills or be incinerated. Plus, the plastics and fire retardants from the electronics will be turned into useful byproducts such as gypsum, ceramics or bromine, Trottier-Hardy explained.

The partnership with the Mint “gives a lot of credibility” and “shows there is a specific market for our product,” he said.

The two organizations will also collaborate on innovation, marketing and identify “exactly where our product will fit best to optimize the valuation of our product” as part of the partnership, Trottier-Hardy added.

enim’s commercialization goal

The commercial facility will be approximately 200,000 square feet and cost around $200 million, Trottier-Hardy said.

Though it is a high figure, he said it will cost less than digging a new mine or building a new smelter, and the metals from its recycling process have been found to be comparable in quality to traditional mining.

Since its founding in 2022 with just Trottier-Hardy and CEO Simon Racicot, enim has grown to a total of seven full-time employees with 40 to 50 contributors from Montreal-based engineering firms Seneca experts-conseils and Dundee Sustainable Technologies Inc.

Trottier-Hardy said to expect updates on financing for the commercial facility and collaborations that will cover other items that can be recycled with its method such as ashes, medical devices and ink cartridges.

“The phone keeps ringing,” he said.