By Pat Shannan
Amid international accusations that U.S. officials in the Clinton administration replaced gold in Fort Knox with phony, mostly tungsten bars that were later shipped to China and other places yet unknown, a German refinery has now discovered that it has received a bogus “gold” bar as well.
The video proof was shown on the German television station ProSieben that ran the news story covering W.C. Heraeus in Hanau, Germany, the world’s largest privately owned refinery.
In the story, Wilfried Horner, head of the gold foundry, shows a 500-gram bar (16.0755 troy ounces) received from an unidentified bank. The bar had the right physical dimensions to be an authentic gold bar, but one of the Heraeus employees suspected something.
After the bar was cut in half, the TV audience could plainly see that the dark insides were tungsten, with only a coating of gold on the outside.
While the story never aired on American TV, it is available on the Internet.
Last fall, Rob Kirby of Kirby Analytics in Toronto reported that China’s central bank had discovered nearly 6,000 400-ounce gold-plated tungsten bars among those it had recently received from bonded warehouses.
It was later learned that at least four counterfeit bars at other locations were found and that all had come from sources within the United States, including Fort Knox, according to the Chinese investigators.
As suspicions grow about counterfeit bars among those held in bonded warehouses for delivery against either COMEX or London Bullion Market Association contracts or shares of exchange-traded funds, investors could panic. It is believed this could be the reason for the blackout on news coverage in the United States on this story except for AFP.
Several metals have similar densities to gold. However, using these metals to produce fake gold is unprofitable due to their high cost. There are two metals that are suitable, from both a density and economic perspective, for manufacturing fake gold—uranium and tungsten.
These metals aren’t without their negatives. Uranium can be radioactive. Tungsten is extremely brittle—the exact opposite of gold. Additionally, tungsten has the highest known melting point of any non-alloyed metal at 3,422 degrees Celsius (6,192 F),making it difficult to work with. However, it appears that at least one high-temperature furnace is producing gilded tungsten products.
Related articles: