Startup Seeks to Turn Mercury Into Gold Via Nuclear Fusion

San Francisco-based startup Marathon Fusion claims its modified fusion process can transmute mercury into gold through nuclear transmutation, tackling the millennia-old challenge of "turning lead into gold", according to the Financial Times.

Since ancient Egypt, the alchemic dream of converting base metals into gold has captivated civilizations. Now, Marathon Fusion, a San Francisco startup, believes this dream may be achievable through nuclear fusion, with a plan to leverage mercury for gold production.

Founded in 2023 by Kyle Schiller, 30, and Adam Rutkowski, the company aims to tackle critical technical hurdles in building fusion power plants.

Nuclear Transmutation for Gold Production

In a paper released last week, Marathon proposed that neutrons released in fusion reactions could be used in a "nuclear transmutation" process to manufacture gold.

Company founders estimate that if future fusion power plants adopt this system, they could annually produce approximately 5,000 kilograms of gold per gigawatt of electricity, without affecting power output or tritium production. At current gold prices, the market value of this gold nears electricity revenue, potentially doubling overall revenue.

However, this approach poses technical challenges - natural mercury contains multiple isotopes, potentially resulting in some radioactive gold. Rutkowski estimates such gold would need 14-18 years of storage to become fully safe.

Though the paper is yet to be peer-reviewed, it has garnered positive evaluations from some experts. Dr. Ahmed Diallo, a plasma physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, stated:

"It's very promising theoretically, and my colleagues I've spoken with so far are excited and interested in it."

Funding and Future Developments

The company currently has 12 full-time employees and has secured $5.9 million in private investment and roughly $4 million in U.S. government grants. Rutkowski revealed the team initially focused on improving fusion fuel combustion system efficiency and began exploring nuclear transmutation feasibility earlier this year.

The Financial Times analysis explains that in fact, the scientific community has already proven that gold can be generated through particle accelerators, but the cost is prohibitive and the production is very low. Earlier this year, CERN physicists at the Large Hadron Collider observed lead atoms transforming into gold when colliding at high speeds.

How The Process Works

The most common fusion experiment scheme currently uses tokamak devices to heat hydrogen isotopes like deuterium and tritium to high temperatures to achieve fusion to produce helium and release large amounts of neutrons.

In traditional visions, fusion power plants use “breeding blankets” to react some neutrons with lithium isotopes to produce tritium to maintain the fuel cycle. Marathon envisions introducing mercury-198 into the breeding blanket, causing it to transform into mercury-197 under the influence of high-speed neutrons.

Mercury-197 is an unstable isotope that can decay into gold-197 after about 64 hours, which is also the only stable isotope of gold.

Rutkowski pointed out: “The key is that our fast neutron reaction chain can both meet the fuel cycle and efficiently produce gold.”

Theoretically, this process could also be applied to synthesizing other precious metals, but Marathon believes the gold market size is large enough that expanding production would not disrupt prices. Current global gold production is about 3,500 tons per year.

“Gold is right in that ‘sweet spot’,” said Dan Brunner, Marathon’s scientific advisor and former CTO of Bill Gates-backed Commonwealth Fusion Systems. “From a science point of view it’s theoretically sound, the question is how do you engineer it.”

While physicists achieved fusion reactions in the 1930s, no one has yet achieved “net energy output”. Some scientists believe that the commercialization of fusion power generation will take decades, but the recent surge in private investment has brought new hope. For example, Commonwealth plans to build a demonstration plant in 2027 and supply Google with power in the early 2030s.

According to data released this week by the Fusion Industry Association, global nuclear fusion companies raised a total of $2.6 billion in the 12 months ending in July this year, and the cumulative total funding has reached $9.8 billion, covering 53 companies worldwide.

Malcolm Handley, Marathon’s first investor and head of venture capital fund Strong Atomics, believes that if fusion power generation can bring gold benefits, it will not only increase Marathon’s valuation, but also accelerate technological breakthroughs in the entire industry.

“These companies face a series of complex challenges,” he said. “And this potential revenue may solve all the problems.”