The following Story appeared on GoldSeek
“What appears to be a tungsten filled gold bar has been found – this time in the UK. It is believed that a scrap dealer bought the Metalor 1 kilo gold bar of 99.98% purity from a member of the public.
Tungsten Filled Gold Bar
Metalor are a leading international gold refiner and bar manufacturer, headquartered in Zurich. The bar appears to have been tampered with and may have had holes drilled into it or melted out and then had tungsten rods inserted or tungsten poured into the holes.
Tungsten is a metal with a similar density to gold but which bullion dealers and experts in physical bullion can easily identify.
It follows an incident of a tungsten filled gold bar (500 gram) originating from an unnamed bank being found by Heraeus in Germany two years ago [See Video Below] and there have been rumours of tungsten filled gold bars in Asia, China and in Vietnam.
There was also an unverified report in 2009 that the Chinese received a fake shipment of gold that, in fact, was tungsten. The bars have led to much speculation regarding the possibility that some of the gold bars making up central bank gold reserves may not be investment grade gold bullion.
Presidential candidate, Ron Paul has raised the question as to whether the gold bars in Fort Knox are authentic and even asked whether some of the US gold reserves have been secretly sold off and asked questions regarding the authenticity of the US gold reserves gold bars.
In the UK, there have been doubts about the quality of Britain’s paltry remaining gold stock as some of the gold bars are reportedly cracked, have fissures and are ‘beginning to crumble’. The Bank of England have denied suggestions that the gold may have been ‘adulterated’, and insisted that most of the hoard is in ‘mint condition’.
The incident shows the importance of dealing with reputable and trusted experts in physical bullion coins and bars and with dealing with counter parties who take these issues seriously.”
In February of 2010 there was a report of a
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKczs-7BFRI
German TV Report [Feb 2010] on a Tungsten Filled Gold Bar Purchased from a European Bank.
