Origin of Gold
While the Earth was forming, iron sank to the centre of the planet, forming the core.
Any precious metals in the planetary mix would have gone with this iron and concentrated in the core, leaving the mantle devoid of elements such as gold, platinum, and osmium.
Earth’s mantle has up to 1,000 times more gold than anticipated.
A final burst of meteorite impacts around 3.9 billion years ago is known as the “terminal bombardment” and caused the cratering that we still see on the Moon.
It was during this last impact event that the gold which we can access in the crust was delivered.
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