Nordic Urban Mining

Why we use Nordic Urban Mining silver in addition to Fairtrade materials.

At Goldfingers, we focus on creating jewelry with care and consideration for both quality and sourcing. That’s why, alongside Fairtrade materials, we incorporate Nordic Urban Mining silver—an innovative method of recovering precious metals such as silver and gold from urban waste.

Each year in Denmark, valuable metals like silver and gold are discarded in household waste that is incinerated at power plants. These metals, often found in items such as old or unwanted jewelry, survive the incineration process because the temperatures used in these plants don’t exceed the melting points of gold and silver. After incineration, the remaining material, known as slag, still contains traces of these valuable metals.

Using advanced recovery techniques, Nordic Urban Mining extracts these metals from slag. Technologies such as lasers and air-powered sensors make it possible to separate silver and gold from other materials. The recovered metals are then refined and made ready for reuse in jewelry production.

Nordic Urban Mining silver allows us to utilize materials already in circulation rather than relying solely on newly mined resources. Mining for metals can be energy-intensive and disruptive to landscapes. By reclaiming metals from waste, we help extend the lifecycle of these valuable materials.

The silver we source through urban mining is melted down, refined, and transformed into new granules that meet the same standards of quality as traditional sources. It offers an alternative that aligns with our approach to thoughtful and responsible jewelry-making.

By combining Nordic Urban Mining silver with Fairtrade-certified materials, we aim to balance the use of newly mined metals with the opportunity to repurpose existing ones. This approach helps us reduce waste and make use of resources that might otherwise go unused.