Irradiation

         The transmutation of ordinary metals into gold is the ultimate goal of alchemy. The alchemists, however, had no way of creating any gold. Transmutation to gold has only been achieved in the past century through three methods, each using mercury:

1. Nuclear Reactor: This is the simplest method, as all you have to do is irradiate platinum or mercury. Mercury is generally used as platinum is more valuable than gold.
2. Particle Accelerator: There are many methods of using particle accelerators to produce gold.. The most common is to bombard a mercury target with protons.
3. Photoneutron Process: Hg198 + 6.8 MeV gamma ray → 1 neutron + Hg197 (2 day half-life → Au197)

         Sadly for the alchemists, the production of gold is too expensive to be economically viable.