The Nose of the Old Fox at a German Foundry Sniffed Out Gold-Plated Tungsten Bar

Well, well. So the rumor like this was true after all?

Zero Hedge reports that the large German foundry found out that all that glitters is not gold:

German ProSieben TV Channel Finds 500 Gram Tungsten Bar At W.C.Heraeus Gold Foundry With Bank Origin (3/1/2010 Zero Hedge)

"German TV station ProSieben finds what appears to be some evocative proof of gold counterfeiting, in the form of tungsten gold substitutes coming to the W.C.Heraeus foundry, which is the world's largest privately-owned precious metals refiner and fabricator, located in Hanau, Germany. The foundry has isolated at least one 500-gram tungsten bar due for melting, originating from a (so far) unnamed bank, which as the head of the foundry stated made the unpleasant discovery that "not all the glitters is gold.""

Here's the link to the ProSieben clip on Youtube.

In the video, Herr Wilfried Hoerner, the head of the gold foundry for 30 years, says one of the workers came to him saying he didn't like the bar. It didn't feel right for some reason. So they decided to cut it. Sure enough. "The nose of the old fox was right." Die Nase des alten Fuchs.

After all, fake gold bars have been actually shipped, from no other place than a nation's central bank. As this blog reported back in December, the Ethiopian central government exported a consignment of gold bars to South Africa in 2008, only to have them returned after South Africans found out they were nothing but gilded steel bars.

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Fake Gold Bars in Central Bank's Vault

No, I am not talking about the recent rumor about gold-plated tungsten bars allegedly shipped from the U.S. and found in Hong Kong. This one actually happened. Ethiopia's central bank found out that some of the gold they thought they had was nothing but gold-plated steel.

I got the link below from an article on Lewrockwell.com, "How to Make Convincing Fake-Gold Bars" (Theo Gray, originally appeared in Popular Science magazine).

Fake fears over Ethiopia's gold (Elizabeth Blunt, 3/13/08, BBC News)

"Ethiopia's national bank has been told to inspect all the gold in its vaults to determine its authenticity.

"It follows the discovery that some of the "gold" it had bought for millions of dollars was gold-plated steel.

"The first hint that something was wrong reportedly came when the Ethiopian central bank exported a consignment of gold bars to South Africa.

"The South Africans sent them back, complaining that they had been sold gilded steel.

"An investigation revealed that the bank had bought a consignment of fake gold from a supplier, who is now under arrest.

"Other arrests followed, including business associates of the main accused; national bank officials; and chemists from the Geological Survey of Ethiopia, whose job it is to assay the bank's purchases of gold and certify that they are real.

"But what has clearly now got the government even more worried is that another different batch of gold in the bank's vaults has also been found to be fake, and this time it was gold which had been there for several years, after being seized from smugglers trying to take it to Djibouti.
Mining

"The Ethiopian parliament's budget and finance committee ordered the inspection of all gold in the national bank's vaults.

"A report from the auditor-general on the affair is expected to be presented to parliament during its current session.

"Gold is mined in Ethiopia in considerable quantities, and a trader selling gold to the central bank has to have it tested and certified by the Geological Survey.

"Whether the bank bought fake gold in the first place, or whether real gold from the vaults has been swapped for gilded steel, the fraud has cost the bank many millions of dollars, and it must have involved collusion on a considerable scale. "

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