Where Do Olympic Gold Medals Come From?

The 2012 Olympic games will begin on July 27 in London, awarding top athletes with medals for their achievements.

World-class athletes around the globe dream of having gold medals placed around their necks with their country’s national anthem blaring on the sound system in celebration of their hard work and dedication.

But are these golden prizes actually made exclusively of gold? And what are the silver and bronze medals given to all the second- and third-place finishers really made of?

JCK spoke to Kennecott Utah Copper, a division of Rio Tinto Mines, which provided the metal used to create the 4,700 medals awarded at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Advisor of communications Kyle Bennett explained: The gold medal is made of 92.5 percent silver, 1.34 percent gold, with the remaining percentage copper; silver medals are composed of 92.5 percent silver, and 7.5 percent copper; bronze medals consist of 97 percent copper, 2.5 percent zinc, and 0.5 percent tin.

The medals started out as iron ore in the Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah. The ore was extracted through a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week process of drilling, blasting, loading, hauling, crushing, and conveying. Valuable materials were then filtered during the concentration process. The smelting process—which entailed heating and melting the copper concentrates—removed the copper from the other elements in the ore. During the refining process, precious metals—including gold and silver—were separated from the copper.

Rio Tinto then shipped the gold, silver, and copper to the Cookson Precious Metals Group, where the metal was pressed into flat discs. The Royal Mint in London inscribed the medals with the official design of the Summer 2012 Olympics, which was designed by David Watkins, jeweller and professor of goldsmithing at London’s Royal College of Art.

The Olympic Committee’s pledge to be the most eco-friendly games to date played a key role in Rio Tinto’s involvement in producing the medals. “Our commitment to sustainable development is an integral part of how we do business and one of the reasons we are able to sponsor the greenest games ever,” Bennett says. “We can trace every gram of metal we produce back to the mine to ensure the metal meets our stringent standards.”

-www.jckonline.com

DIAMOND INDUSTRY LEADERS DISCUSS FAMOUS DIAMONDS

Diamonds were the talk of the Tower of London at a private dinner held last week to mark the start of a three-day summit where, for the very first time, global diamond authorities including Rio Tinto's Tom Albanese, Cartier's Arnaud Bamberger, Christies' Jewellery specialists David Warren and Raymond Sancroft-Baker and senior figures from the Gemological Institute of America, De Beers, and the major auction houses came together as a specialist council to spearhead the search to discover as-yet undocumented rare diamonds and ensure they are showcased to an international audience.

The talks were hosted by Robert Procop, a former Crown Jeweller and leading international authority on diamonds and gemstones, to mark his recent succession from Lord Balfour as Editor-in-Chief of Famous Diamonds.

Procop commented: "For the first time, we have a team of the world's leading diamond experts - people who have mined, cut, classified, bought and sold these gemstones - joining me to embark on a quest to identify Famous Diamonds. I am delighted to say that we already have several exciting new additions which will be published in the next edition in 2012."

With over 100 diamonds in the world at 100 carats or more, the criteria for Famous Diamonds must necessarily extend beyond size to focus on the rare qualities and historical provenance of these extraordinary gemstones.

-The Israeli Diamond Industry

RIO TINTO’S DIAMOND PRODUCTION INCREASES 29% IN Q2

Rio Tinto’s third quarter diamond production increased 29% compared to production in the second quarter of 2011, however remains flat year-over-year.

Argyle rough diamond production increased 46% compared with the previous quarter, but declined 5% compared with the corresponding period in 2010. Rising production follows stabilization of the operation after the impact of heavy rains and flooding in March, the company reported in a third quarter operations review.

Diavik production was 8% higher than both the previous quarter and the third quarter of 2010, driven by increased ore throughput, although this was partly offset by lower grades.
In the first nine months of 2011, production declined 18% to 8.8 million carats.

Rio Tinto expects its 2011 share of production to be 13 million carats. -INDEX Online