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Thinking of throwing out your old cell phone? Think again. Maybe you should mine it first for gold, silver, copper and a host of other metals embedded in the electronics -- many of which are enjoying near-record prices.

a Canadian-based mining company, spent $240,000 in the first quarter to lobby on mining rules and other issues, according to a disclosure form.

BOSTON - There's gold in the sea floor. Silver, copper, zinc and lead, too. The problem is, it's a mile or two underwater and encased in massive mineral deposits that layer a dark, mysterious world. But new technology and worldwide demand have combined to make mining for these metals economically feasible for the first time. A breakthrough project is moving forward in New Guinea, and new rules to govern deep ocean mining will be set by an international authority this spring.

Over the past month, most favoured mining equity sectors copper, nickel and aluminium have overshadowed gold, but platinum equities are on the bubble.

The town of Guiyu in China's Guangdong Province, where residents have made an industry of recycling waste computer products with serious impact on their health, is one example. "People in Guiyu are breaking down mounds of toxic electronics with crude instruments and burning the electronics in fire pits for the gold and copper wiring in the circuit boards," Greenpeace International campaigner Casey Harrell told TechNewsWorld. "New studies show that the health impacts aren't just a combination of the impacts of chloro- and bromo-dioxin; it's exponentially higher than that," he said. "Among the few places in the world where you find mixed chloro- and bromo-dioxin is in places where you burn items with chlorine and bromine in them."

"MANILA, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Global miner Xstrata Plc (XTA.L) has boosted an estimate of mineral resources at its $5.2-billion Tampakan copper-gold project in the southern Philippines to 2.4 billion tonnes from 2.2 billion, the firm said on Tuesday."

"New Zealand's recent decision to oppose another deep sea mining venture off its coasts has poured cold water on advocates of searching for and digging up valuable minerals including copper, gold and manganese from the ocean floor."

"The use of hydrogen peroxide can solve an old mining problem while significantly increasing the amount of copper extracted from the ore. Certain impurities such as iron sulfides (which include pyrite) have been difficult to remove until now. A new technology based on hydrogen peroxide now offers a solution. Using a small copper and gold mine in Australia as an example, Evonik developers have demonstrated that the technology works on an industrial scale and can increase the copper yield by roughly ten percent."

Freeport McMoRan announced 30th November that it has partially restarted production at its Baywater copper semis plant in New Jersey. The facility, which was damaged during 'superstorm Sandy,' produces copper wire and tube products for the aerospace, transport and communications industries. A spokesperson for the company said "limited quantities of their primary products are being delivered" but the company said it is unclear when full production will resume.