BEIJING, Jan. 16 -- A Key milestone to the countdown of the Beijing Olympics was marked when BHP Billiton delivered the raw materials, such as gold and silver needed to produce the medals, to the games organizer yesterday in Shanghai. The raw materials were sourced from the Australian firm's Cannington mine in Queensland and its Escondida and Spence operations in Chile. At a handover ceremony at Shanghai Mint, where the medals will be produced over the next six months, BHP's China President Clinton Dines said that the determining factor in selecting the assets for the project was the ability to involve as many BHP employees and partners as possible from its operations around the world. Escondida, the world's biggest copper mine, provides the copper concentrate containing the 13.04 kilograms of gold for the gold medals while Cannington supplies the lead concentrate for the 1,340kg of silver that will be used in both gold and silver medals. Spence is the source of 6,930kg of copper cathodes. Some of the raw materials were earlier processed at Chinese smelters. Dines said all the materials were sourced and shipped free to China, given BHP's role as the official minerals and medals sponsor for the Beijing Games. He declined to say how much the firm spent on the materials. Shanghai Mint will create a total of 1,000 medals each for gold, silver and bronze categories for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Spence's copper cathodes will also be used to make 51,000 commemorative medals, which all participants at the Games will get.
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