The world may be on the verge of a gold revolution, one that doesn’t involve digging through mountains or panning in rivers. Instead, we might soon see gold being created inside nuclear fusion reactors.
A U.S.-based startup, Marathon Fusion, claims it has found a way to produce gold using biotechnology, physics, and the same process that powers the sun: fusion. By converting certain isotopes of mercury into gold through nuclear transmutation, this breakthrough could open a whole new chapter in gold production, one that doesn’t harm the planet.
Major investors, respected scientists, and even Bill Gates’ team are watching closely. If it works, it could completely shift how we think about natural resources, metal recycling, and even energy itself.
And beyond the precious metal, this could also be a game-changer for sustainable mining and green technology Imagine producing energy and precious metals at the same time, with zero environmental destruction. That’s not just efficiency. That’s a whole new kind of scientific innovation.
How it works: turning mercury into gold
It all starts with a rare type of mercury called mercury-198. It’s stable and naturally occurring but only makes up a small part of regular mercury. Inside a fusion reactor, this mercury gets bombarded by fast-moving neutrons.
That neutron hit changes mercury-198 into a slightly different version, mercury-197. But mercury-197 is unstable, so it quickly breaks down and it turns into gold-197. That’s the real deal: the only form of gold that’s stable and naturally found on Earth.
The whole process is called nuclear transmutation, and while it sounds like science fiction, it’s been done before in labs like CERN. But it was never considered practical—too expensive, too energy-intensive. What makes Marathon’s approach different is that it uses fusion neutrons that are already being generated anyway. So instead of building a new system just to make gold, they’re adding a gold-making layer onto a system that’s already running.
In theory, a standard 1-gigawatt fusion reactor could produce up to five tons of gold per year; that’s about $550 million in annual revenue on top of clean energy production.
Gold as a catalyst for fusion’s breakthrough
For decades, fusion has been called the “holy grail” of clean energy, a limitless power source that could replace fossil fuels. One of the biggest sticking points? The cost. Fusion is highly expensive, takes forever to get anywhere, and we still haven’t cracked the code on making it produce more energy than it uses.
Marathon’s idea changes that conversation. If gold can be produced profitably while generating clean energy, then suddenly fusion reactors become a dual-revenue machine: energy plus precious metal.
More importantly, this doesn’t interfere with the fuel cycle. The same neutrons used to make this precious metal also continue powering the system. That’s where green technology and economics finally meet in the middle. And if investors know there’s a gold output, the funding gap for fusion tech might close faster than anyone expected.
That could put us on a faster path not only to clean power but also to a more sustainable approach to managing the planet’s natural resources.
Still a dream… But closer than ever
As exciting as this sounds, we’re not there yet. Fusion itself is still in development. Marathon is a small company with a dozen employees and limited funding. No fusion plant today is running this system commercially. Not yet.
But optimism is growing. Last year alone, over $2.6 billion was invested in fusion startups. Big names—including Bill Gates—are backing this space. If the fusion problem is solved, and if this treasure can really be generated this way, it could change the entire future of gold production, metal recycling, and the way we value scientific progress.