The Royal Mint has been selected to design and produce athletes’ medals for the 2012 London Olympics.

Approximately 4,700 medals are expected to be handed out over the course of the games, which begin on July 27th 2012.

Designs for the gold, silver and bronze medals will be finalised at the Mint’s headquarters in Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf.

Final designs will be unveiled in the summer of 2011.

London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton said: “We are delighted to be working with the Royal Mint, a company established in the UK for 1,100 years, to produce the London 2012 victory medals.

“The Olympic and Paralympic medals are presented to elite athletes at the biggest sporting event in the world on an individual’s pinnacle career moment and we’re pleased to announce that they will be produced in south Wales.”

Modern gold Olympic medals are made with about six grams of gold, while the runners up medals are struck from pure silver.

Royal Mint’s chief operating officer Adam Lawrence described it as “great news” for Wales.