London 2012 Olympic medals go into production

Wales strikes gold, silver and bronze as 2012 medals go into production Photo: Locog/Getty Images

Production has started on next year’s London 2012 medals at the Royal Mint’s headquarters in south Wales.

In total they will produce approximately 4,700 medals which will be awarded in 805 medal ceremonies across both the Olympics and Paralympics.

Each medal will be struck 15 times and will be rolled through a 750 degree furnace three times in a process taking around ten hours.

Olympic medals have been designed by British artist David Watkins and the Paralympic medals by Lin Cheung, a practising jewellery artist and senior lecturer in jewellery design at Central Saint Martin’s College of Arts and Design, while the ore has been supplied from mines in Utah, USA and Mongolia.

“We are immensely proud and honoured to be able to strike the Olympic and Paralympic medals. More than 800 local people are employed by the Royal Mint, and now each one will be able to tell their children and grandchildren that they – and south Wales – had a hand in creating a piece of Olympic history,” said Royal Mint chief executive Adam Lawrence.

Locog chief Paul Deighton added: “It’s great to see businesses across the UK benefiting from the Games and I’m absolutely delighted that the Olympic and Paralympic medals for the Victory Ceremonies are being made in South Wales.”

The ore for the medals is supplied by London 2012 sponsor Rio Tinto and is mined at Rio Tinto’s Kennecott Utah Copper Mine near Salt Lake City in America, as well as from the Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia.

© Sportsbeat 2011