The ancient Egyptians were noted for their skill in fabricating gold, electrum, and silver from the earliest times, and made use of lead or compounds in jewelry, eye-paint, and as a colorant or opacifier in glasses and glazes. There is interest in knowing both the mineralogical and geographical source of the gold, electrum, silver, and lead used by the Egyptians from Predynastic to New Kingdom times. Ancient records and the remains of ancient mines testify to early Egyptian exploitation of gold and electrum southward from Quft deep into what is now the Northern Sudan. Galena occurs in the Eastern Desert along the Red Sea Coast. Native silver (<i>sensu stricto</i>) and silver ores are not known in Egypt or its environs, whereas there is literary and archaeological evidence for trade and tributes from Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia from Predynastic times. Silver may have come from as far afield as Persia or Anatolia, while some may derive from silver-rich native Egyptian gold-silver alloys. In an attempt to characterize Egyptian gold, electrum, silver and lead, chemical and lead isotope analyses have been made of artifacts, burial galenas and modern samples of galena from Egypt and elsewhere. The bearing of these analyses on mineralogical and geographic sources, on the debasement of gold and silver with copper and on the date at which the Egyptians achieved the separation of gold from silver is discussed.