World Metal Prices Through The Roof - Up The Cost Of Olympic Medals

[matcom]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Greece waited 108 years to host another Olympic Games (news - web sites). Unfortunately it came just as a boom in world metal prices has sent the cost of winners' medals through the stadium roof.

At approximately $400,000 for the metal content of the 3,000 Athens medals alone, it may be just a drop in the Aegean Sea compared to an estimated $8.6 billion total Games cost.

But cost-conscious organizers can hardly have expected that the price of gold would increase approximately 45 percent since the summer Games in Sydney four years ago, or that silver would go up 35 percent and copper -- the key metal in bronze -- would cost 42 percent higher than in 2000. Considering that the medals struck for the Athens Games used 13 kilos (417 ounces) of gold and approximately one ton each of silver and bronze -- an alloy of 90 percent copper and 10 percent zinc -- that's a hefty increase in four years. By unofficial reckoning, it means the Athens Games needed over $166,000 worth of gold and $234,000 of silver for its medals.

The price of gold has risen dramatically since August 2000, when it was approximately $275 an ounce. It was hovering around $400 an ounce on Tuesday. Similarly, silver has risen from $4.90 an ounce when the Sydney Games (news - web sites) were held, to $6.65 currently. Copper, which is around $2,700 a ton, was selling for $1,900 four years ago.

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