By March or April 2008, the 6000 gold, silver and bronze medals for Beijing 2008 will be ready. Mining giant BHP Billiton says the raw materials for making the medals have arrived in China recently. China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation in Shanghai, China, will be the maker of the medals.

The raw materials for creating the medals are from BHP’s mines in Chile and Australia. Escondida mine in Chile provides the copper concentrate which contains gold for the gold medals. Spence mining operation, also in Chile, supplies copper cathode which can turn into bronze medals. Cannington mine in Queensland, Australia, supplies silver and lead for crafting silver medals.

The 6000 Olympic medals will be expected to use up 1 tonne of gold and silver and advanced technologies are used to craft the medals, especially the gold one.

By the way, the Olympic gold medal is not made up of 100% pure gold…

How must the Olympic medals be made?

Each Olympic medal must be at least 68mm across and 3mm thick. The gold and silver medals must contain at least 92.5% silver, and at least 6 grams of 24-carat gold must coat each gold medal. Bronze medals contain copper, zinc, tin and a very small amount of silver.

Besides the 6000 official Olympic medals, the Beijing Olympic Committee has to come up with 40 thousand more commerative Olympic medals for coaches, empires and participating parties of Beijing 2008 by next April.

Via 文综天地