Question: Is gold producible from other elements?

Calum Cunningham answered on 20 Feb 2025:

If you’re referring to the medieval practice of alchemy, the answer is no (sorry!). However, you can technically produce atoms of most elements by starting with other elements – by the processes of nuclear fusion (combining atoms), nuclear fission (splitting atoms) or using a particle accelerator.

Fusion can only produce elements up to iron (limited by physics) and fission in a nuclear reactor doesn’t typically produce gold because it’s a bit too heavy (uranium fission does produce some silver though). So your best bet would be to smash some protons, neutrons or alpha particles into a target element and force it to undergo radioactive decay to produce gold.

Note that none of this is easy, and these processes are often very difficult, expensive and require A LOT of energy – that’s why we tend to mine gold instead!