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Where does all that gold leaf come from? Nuggets of pure gold, soft and malleable, are brought down to Mandalay from the mines in the north and then flattened into paper thin sheets. These sheets are placed between leather and copper and hammered, cut, and hammered again, and again - for hours on end. One ounce of gold yields 10 sq. meters of finished product and one 4x4 cm sheet of this will set you back 1000 kyat - or $1. And that adds up to a lot of merit.