Where did Gold come from? Understanding the origins of the most valuable commodity on Earth
Gold was created by exploding stars and arrived on Earth through asteroid impacts billions of years ago. Most of our gold remains trapped deep inside the Earth's core.
Not made on Earth
Gold is a truly "alien" metal because it cannot be naturally produced anywhere inside our planet. Every single gramme of gold we find today was created in deep space long before Earth even existed.
Born in dying stars
The story of gold begins with massive stars that explode at the end of their lives, an event called a supernova. These giant explosions create enough heat and pressure to fuse atoms together, forming heavy metals like gold.
Violent star collisions
Scientists have found that the most violent events in the universe - the collision of two neutron stars - are the main source of gold. These massive crashes spray precious metals across the galaxy like cosmic dust.
A cloud of cosmic dust
After these stars collide or explode, the gold atoms travel through space as tiny particles of dust. Over millions of years, this dust helped form the sun and the planets in our solar system.
Earth’s molten beginnings
When Earth first formed about 4.5 billion years ago, it was a ball of hot, liquid rock. During this time, heavy metals like gold sank deep into the centre of the planet because they were so heavy.
Trapped in the core
Most of the Earth's gold, about 99 per cent of it, is currently trapped in the planet's molten core. There is enough gold there to cover the entire surface of the Earth in a layer 50 centimetres thick.
The Late Heavy Bombardment
The gold we mine today arrived much later during a time called the Late Heavy Bombardment. Around 4 billion years ago, thousands of gold-rich asteroids crashed into the Earth's surface.
Delivered by space rocks
Without these asteroid impacts, the Earth’s surface would have almost no gold at all. These space rocks "refilled" the planet's outer crust with the precious metal that we are now able to find and mine.
Moved by heat and water
Over millions of years, volcanic activity and hot water deep underground moved this space-born gold closer to the surface. It eventually settled into the veins and deposits that miners look for today.
A piece of the universe
When you wear a gold ring, you are wearing a piece of a star that died billions of years ago. Its rarity on Earth is a direct result of the rare and violent cosmic events that created it.
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