Scientists have figured out how precious metals like gold, copper and platinum get from the mantle into the earth's crust. An article about this was published in the journal Nature Communications.

A huge mass of metals is located in the earth's mantle - a thick layer of red-hot rock between the crust and the core. However, the mantle lies at a depth of about 30 kilometers, and therefore it is almost impossible to extract minerals from it.

In some parts of the world, natural processes bring mantle material into the crust in the flow of molten magma, but it is not yet clear to scientists how exactly the metals are transported.

Researchers from Cardiff University have figured out what conditions allow metals to get into the crust. “When magma reaches the base of the crust, metals important to humanity are often trapped there and cannot reach the near-surface zone if the temperature is too high or too low,” says Ian McDonald, one of the authors of the study. “We have found that the temperature must fall within the ideal range of around 1,000 degrees for copper, gold, and tellurium to break out of the trap and form ore deposits near the surface.”

Scientists hope their find will make it easier for humanity to find valuable metals, as geologists are likely to be able to predict the existence of igneous zones with suitable conditions.

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