Vice President of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) Jiang Xiaoyu (R) laughs as he shakes hands with BHP Billiton China President Clinton Dines in front of the Olympic medals at an official handing over ceremony in Beijing July 3, 2008.

Beijing Paralympic Games gold, silver and bronze medals are seen in an official handout photo July 3, 2008. The Beijing organizers took possession of the 6,000 medals for the Olympics and Paralympics in a ceremony near Tiananmen Square on Thursday, 36 days before the start of the Games.

(CRI 2008-07-03 20:12:58)--6000 thousand gold, silver, and bronze medals of Beijing Olympic Games and Paralympics Games have been handed over to the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) on Thursday , the Beijing Youth Daily reports.

The raw material provider of the medals, the games' official diversified minerals and medals sponsor BHP Billiton from Australia, delivered the winning awards for athletes to the organizer of the Game.

Raw materials like gold, silver and electrolytic copper were imported from Chile and Australia and sent to Shanghai Mint where the medals were made.

The medals for the champion and the runner-up are made of pure silver and each of the champion's medal is plated with at least six grams of pure gold as requested by the game organizer. Each medal weighs about 150 grams.

The Olympic medal also incorporated fine jade excavated from Kunlun Mountain in northwest China's Qinghai Province, the first time in history Olympic medals being casted with more than just metal.

The unique design of medal came from a team of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Beijing unveiled its official Olympic medal design on March 27, 2007.