Australian Bullion Dealer ABC Bullion has contacted SD to advise that one of its suppliers has provided them photographic evidence of a tungsten filled 1 kilo gold bar discovered this week. The bar passed a hand-held xrf scan which showed 99.98% pure AU. The tungsten was only discovered when the bar was physically cut in half.
After numerous reports of 400oz tungsten filled bars being discovered in Hong Kong, this is the first documented and verified report with photographic evidence that has been made public.
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Very sneaky, this is showing up in the news more and more.
XRF (X-ray fluorescence) is not a good technique to evaluate the bulk composition of a metal object. The X-rays only penetrate a few thousandths of an inch into the material, so they will not be able to pick up anything buried inside like this. In addition, the XRF device must model the spectrum given off, basically “guessing” the metal properties, typically 3-5% accurate. Depending on how they’re processed, the densities of gold and tungsten can overlap, making this substitution nearly impossible to detect. I would probably try some acoustical techniques (CSAM) to search for internal interfaces, but that would take a truckload of equipment.
Can Chavez get his hands on such equipment?
Update: Tungsten filled McMansions discovered in housing developments across the USA, particularly those developments with soothing names and impressive entrance signs.