How Olympic medals are made
　　Years of hard work and sacrifice will pay off as Olympic athletes climb the podium to receive their medals in London. But exactly how are those medals made? The raw materials are mined in the Utah desert in the USA, but that’s just the start of a long and complicated process.
This is the Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah, it has been dubbed the largest man-made hole in the world, and this is the birthplace of a 2012 Olympic medal.

These massive trucks take the raw materials out of the ground -- and they are massive.

All that earth also only produces 1 medal -- yes 1 medal.

The next process is putting the dirt and earth through a series of grinders.

Once the ore is turned into powder, from there it reacts with a liquid chemical which separates the medal from the dirt.

The medal is actually the bubbles, that gets transferred to a smelter.
　　From there the copper/silver/or gold sheets -- in this case copper -- are shipped to a factory in Wales to become Olympic medals.

相關(guān)資訊：

倫敦奧運(yùn)會(huì)和殘奧會(huì)總共需要4700枚獎(jiǎng)牌。眼下，這些獎(jiǎng)牌正由英國(guó)皇家造幣廠加緊制作。英國(guó)當(dāng)?shù)仉娨暸_(tái)日前采訪了位于南威爾士蘭特里桑特的皇家造幣廠奧運(yùn)獎(jiǎng)牌制作車(chē)間。倫敦奧運(yùn)會(huì)獎(jiǎng)牌是怎樣制作的？獎(jiǎng)牌制作工作由18人組成的專(zhuān)家小組負(fù)責(zé)。具體制作工序都由非常有經(jīng)驗(yàn)的師傅親自操刀。一名叫哈里斯的師傅已經(jīng)在皇家造幣廠工作了40年。負(fù)責(zé)鍛造的哈里斯說(shuō)，制作奧運(yùn)獎(jiǎng)牌是自己一生最光榮的工作。倫敦奧運(yùn)會(huì)獎(jiǎng)牌是怎樣制作的？以前他也做過(guò)英聯(lián)邦運(yùn)動(dòng)會(huì)的獎(jiǎng)牌，但不管在工藝上還是材料上，奧運(yùn)金牌才是最好的。造幣廠專(zhuān)家說(shuō)，制作奧運(yùn)獎(jiǎng)牌需要22道工序，所有金屬材料都來(lái)自美國(guó)猶他州的一家公司。獎(jiǎng)牌制作的最后一道工序是把獎(jiǎng)牌掛在紫色的帶子上，然后放在盒子里。在掛帶車(chē)間，一名女工說(shuō)：“奧運(yùn)會(huì)獎(jiǎng)牌的最后工序在我這里完成，我感到非常非常自豪?！眰惗貖W運(yùn)會(huì)的金牌重量為400克，在重量、體積和價(jià)值上創(chuàng)造了夏季奧運(yùn)會(huì)的歷史之最。