July 3 (Bloomberg) -- A journey to Beijing that began in Australia and South America was completed today when BHP Billiton Ltd. delivered the medals for the Olympic Games.

Six thousand medals -- sourced from BHP mines in Australia and Chile -- were handed to organizers of the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics, 37 days before the first will be awarded.

``Finally the medals are handed over,'' Jiang Xiaoyu, a Beijing Olympics organizing committee vice president, said at a ceremony in the capital. ``This is a victorious moment.''

The 2,000 gold medals -- each plated with at least six grams (0.2 ounces) of the precious metal -- were minted from 13.04 kilograms of gold from BHP's Escondida mine in Chile. The bulk of the medal is made from silver from Cannington in Queensland and smelted in China.

``We've sweated over them,'' said Dai Jin, who supervised silver and bronze smelting at Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group's plant, 684 miles (1,100 kilometers) from Beijing. ``Athletes will be taking a part of us, our fingerprints to every corner of the world.''

Melbourne-based BHP used 1,340kg of silver in the gold and silver medals, with the 830kg of copper for the bronze medals coming from its Spence mine in Chile. The world's biggest mining company is a sponsor of the Beijing Olympics and China accounted for 20 percent of its sales last year, almost double the share three years before.

The supply of metals for the medals is ``a unique opportunity to reinforce our long-term commitment to China,'' Clinton Dines, president of BHP Billiton China, said today.

Double-Dragon

This year's medals feature a double-dragon centerpiece engraved in jade from China's western Qinghai province. The other side of the medal follows the International Olympic Committee design standard featuring Nike, the goddess of victory, and an image of the Greek Panathenic stadium that hosted the 1896 Olympics.

The design came from China's Central Academy of Fine Arts, the winning proposal of 265 entrants in a global competition open to the public -- a first for the Olympics.

As well as the 6,000 medals, 51,000 commemorative bronze medals were produced for every participant from 6,100kg of copper. All the medals were minted in Shanghai.

The Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics include 302 competitions, with track, swimming and other water sports accounting for a third of the medals. The Sept. 6-17 Paralympics and the Olympics each award 3,000 medals.

To contact the reporter on this story: Wing-Gar Cheng in Beijing at wgcheng@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 3, 2008 00:41 EDT