On the morning of January 15, 2008, BHP Billiton formally submitted to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) 13.04 kg of gold, 1.34 tons of silver and 6.93 tons of electrolytic copper as raw materials required to make the medals for the Olympics and Paralympics.
From the gold-bearing copper concentrate produced at the Escondida copper mine in Chile purchased by Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group from BHP Billiton was extracted metallic gold with a purity exceeding 99.99%, which was plated onto the total of 2000 gold medals for the Beijing Olympics.