Heavier elements sink to the bottom. The liquid core is mostly iron, so I would expect the even heavier gold, uranium, platinum, etc to be distributed closer to

Heavier elements sink to the bottom. The liquid core is mostly iron, so I would expect the even heavier gold, uranium, platinum, etc to be distributed closer to the centre of mass than the surface. Now the crust is not liquid but it is very old and there have been lots of plate tectonics. I imagine all the shaking and scraping would be enough to get the gold in deeper. It's interesting to note that the richest gold field we have was created when a meteorite hit the Earth so hard, the deeper parts of the crust got bent upward and lay closer to the surface (Vredefort dome). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vredefort_impact_structure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vredefort_impact_structure