Urdu Report Desk
Marathon Fusion, a US startup focused on nuclear fusion technology, has claimed it has converted mercury into stable gold using neutrons generated through nuclear fusion.
The San Francisco-based company says its reported gold production rate is 10 times higher than the scientific record reported by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 2025. However, it has not disclosed the final quantity or weight of gold produced during the experiment.
Beyond Gold Production
Marathon Fusion says it aims to use the technology for more than producing precious metals. The company also hopes to apply it to the production of medical isotopes used in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
The process relies on nuclear transmutation rather than a chemical reaction. Instead of changing an element’s chemical structure, nuclear transmutation alters the nucleus of an atom, transforming it into a different element.
How Mercury Is Converted Into Gold
According to the company’s described process, high-energy neutrons produced by the fusion of deuterium and tritium are used to transform naturally occurring mercury-198 into the unstable isotope mercury-197.
The radioactive mercury-197 then undergoes a natural process known as electron capture, converting it into gold-197, the only stable isotope of gold.
Controlling radioactive by-products remains a significant scientific challenge associated with the process.
CERN Previously Produced Gold Nuclei
In May 2025, scientists working at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider confirmed the production of gold nuclei through collisions involving lead nuclei.
Estimates from CERN’s ALICE experiment indicated that approximately 86 billion gold nuclei were produced during four major experimental runs conducted between 2015 and 2018. Their combined mass was only around 29 picograms.
Those gold nuclei existed only momentarily before disintegrating, making the achievement fundamentally different from producing a stable quantity of gold.
A Different Approach to Gold Production
Unlike CERN’s method, which generated gold nuclei through collisions involving lead, Marathon Fusion says its approach uses neutrons from nuclear fusion to transform mercury into gold.
The company’s claim points to a different potential route for producing gold through nuclear processes. However, the amount of gold generated and the practical performance of the technology have not been disclosed in the supplied report.
