Scientists have confirmed that the biggest store of gold on Earth is deep inside the planet’s core. New research shows that this precious metal is slowly leaking towards the surface.

This discovery comes from studying volcanic rocks that erupted from deep below the Earth’s outer layer called the lithosphere. These rocks contain special forms of elements called isotopes.

More than 99.999% of the Earth’s gold and other valuable metals are hidden beneath about 3,000 kilometres of solid rock inside the metallic core. This core is far beyond human reach.

Researchers from the University of Göttingen found traces of an element called ruthenium (Ru) in volcanic rocks from Hawaii. Ruthenium-100 is an isotope thought to be locked inside the Earth’s core, along with gold and other metals, since the Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago.

The scientists said the high amount of Ruthenium-100 in the Hawaiian lava means these rocks must have come from the boundary between the core and the mantle, the thick layer above the core.

“When the first results came in, we realised that we had literally struck gold! Our data confirmed that material from the core, including gold and other precious metals, is leaking into the Earth’s mantle above,” explained Dr Nils Messling from Göttingen University’s Department of Geochemistry.

Published in the journal Nature, the study shows that the Earth’s core is not as separate as we once thought.

"We can now also prove that huge volumes of superheated mantle material, several hundreds of quadrillion metric tonnes of rock – originate at the core-mantle boundary and rise to the Earth’s surface to form ocean islands like Hawaii," said Professor Matthias Willbold.

This new knowledge suggests that some of the gold and precious metals we use today, especially in important fields like renewable energy, may come from deep inside the Earth’s core.

"Our findings open up an entirely new perspective on the evolution of the inner dynamics of our home planet,” said Messling.

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