40% gold bullion in China market is rumored to be unreliable

“40% of gold bars in the Chinese market are adulterated with antimony or tungsten.” An explosive news spread across the Internet yesterday morning. As the international gold price approached the high of 1,800 U.S. dollars, and the sales of gold bars soared during the "Eleventh" Golden Week, this statement immediately attracted great attention from consumers.

Is this true? Yesterday evening, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China stated that this statement was purely a rumor. The bank issued a product quality certificate for each gold bar, guaranteed the fineness, weight, and quality of the product, and promised to buy back it.

Many industry experts who visited banks and gold stores were informed that the phenomenon of adulteration of tungsten in gold bars had occurred but only a very small number. The so-called 40% adulteration on the Internet was an exaggeration. When ordinary consumers purchase gold bars, they still need to choose a traceable and guaranteed formal channel to ensure their own interests.

Rumor: The statement that gold bars were mixed with neodymium or tungsten 4 gold bars was adulterated, originating from a microblog.

“Someone took a kilogram of gold sold by ICBC, accompanied by certificates and invoices, and sold it to a gold and silver processing factory. The owner of the processing plant received it. To check the exact purity of gold, it was necessary to go to Nanjing. The result was reported a week later. The gold bar was doped with '铱'.” In Weibo, the publisher of this news made a point, claiming that 40% of gold bars in the Chinese market were adulterated with antimony or tungsten.

In less than a day, this information was reprinted on a large scale by multiple websites and forums like wings. “Even with gold bars can be falsified, banks simply do not have credibility.” Some netizens believe that the bank’s move was suspected of deceiving consumers. However, some netizens also questioned: “America is a rare metal. The annual output of the world is only 3 tons. Using helium to mix in gold will not be too costly. Is this possible?”

According to the relevant person in charge of the National Quality Supervision and Inspection Center for Gemstones and Jewelry, gold bars that have been inspected at the inspection center for many years have never appeared such “adulteration” phenomenon.

ICBC: Guaranteed Gold Bullion Quality Commitment Repurchase In response to the news that Netcom ICBC sold gold bullion adulteration, the ICBC News Agency staff said yesterday that the network transmission was purely a rumor and the bank issued a product quality certificate for each gold bar. The quality, weight, and quality of the product are guaranteed and promised to buy back.

Yesterday evening, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China issued a “statement statement” stating that the gold bars sold by the bank were all processed and produced by state-owned large-scale refineries or mints, and the processing companies were all awarded by the London Gold and Silver Market Association (LBMA). "Conformity certificate. The raw materials of gold are unified out of the Shanghai Gold Exchange and are in line with the standards of the Shanghai Gold Exchange. The processing and production processes adopt internationally advanced pressing and casting techniques. The processed gold bars are all in compliance with relevant national standards.

ICBC stated that every year, all precious metal products will be sampled and tested. The bank commissioned a state-level testing agency designated by the Shanghai Gold Exchange. The testing standard adopts the gold standard of the Shanghai Gold Exchange. The test results over the years are in line with the standard.

Experts: All the gold bars originate from the gold exchanges. Although ICBC is quickly rumoring, but the gold bars sold in the market are really like the “40% adulteration” referred to in this news?

As a well-known “old name” on the gold market in Beijing, GOME Group not only sells gold, but also undertakes the task of supplying raw gold to many large shopping malls. Sun Jian, general manager of the Beijing Gongmei Group’s gold trading center, believes that “40% adulteration” is not possible.

"All the gold bars currently sold in the formal market are from the Shanghai Gold Exchange, and only through the gold exchange to purchase gold bars, can we issue value-added tax invoices." Sun Jian said that for the legal gold sales channel in compliance with the law, There is no adultery motivation or necessity.

“The 40% gold bars in the Chinese market are adulterated? How is this possible? This statement is obviously an exaggeration.” Yesterday afternoon, in the precious metals trading repurchase center of Bank of Communications in Financial Street, the researcher of the personal finance department of Bank of Communications Beijing Branch Zhao Wei. Outspoken. As gold investment professionals, there are countless types of gold bars that pass through each year. He also has enough right to speak.

“The gold bars sold in the formal channels have to pass several tests.” Zhao Yu said that taking investment gold bars sold by banks as an example, first of all, banks will strictly control “qualification” when selecting processing plants, and they must choose A processing plant with nationally recognized gold bar production qualifications ensures that each gold bar has a traceable “ID card”; after the gold bar is delivered, the bank will send the gold bar to the state-level regular gold inspection center in Nanjing, Shenzhen, etc. before receiving it. Pass the "sampling checker". "In order to avoid the incorporation of impurities inside the gold bars, there will be destructive inspections of fully-melted gold to ensure that nothing is lost."

Coping: Recognizing that it is difficult to select 4 channels of gold bars for adulteration is exaggerating, but this does not mean that there is no adulteration of gold bars.

"The fact that the gold bars were doped with yttrium or tungsten actually happened. The main reason is that the density of the two metals is very close to that of gold, so that they can 'hidden' into the gold bars without being noticed." Due to the high density of gold, weight has always been an important indicator of the purity of gold, and "study gold" is also a basic assessment of young salesmen. The requirement and actual weight is not more than 10%. Therefore, the incorporation of niobium or tungsten is intended to get over "weight."

The huge profits behind adulteration are the reasons why criminals dare to take risks. Zhao Wei said that taking tungsten as an example, the price of this metal is only one third of gold. If a 100-g gold bar uses 60% gold and the core uses 40% tungsten, then the cost price is less than 70% of pure gold, and the spread is very large.

Since there is such a phenomenon of counterfeiting, does the average consumer have the means to identify adulterated gold bars on their own?

"Unfortunately, without professional inspection tools and rich recognition experience, it is almost impossible for ordinary consumers to distinguish between adulterated gold bars and real gold bars." Zhao Yan said bluntly, if the counterfeiters are highly skilled, they will hide tungsten in gold bars. Internally, even with a typical detector, it is difficult to identify true and false. "After all, the detector only detects the surface of the gold bar. To fully identify it, you can only tell whether it is true or not by fully melting the gold."

In this regard, the advice given by industry experts is that consumers should choose formal channels when buying gold bars so that they can maximally avoid risks.

News Background In the third quarter, the price of gold rose by more than one percent. After a half-year slump, the international gold price finally showed a full-up trend in September. It rose by 5.1% in September. From March to September of this year, the international gold price has been less than 1,600 U.S. dollars per ounce, approaching the threshold of 1,800 U.S. dollars per ounce in one fell swoop, and it has risen about 11 percent, the largest increase in the same period since 2008.

On September 27, the most active December gold price on the New York Mercantile Exchange gold market closed at US$1780.5 per ounce, which was higher than the previous trading day, driven by investors’ bargain-hunting and USD’s lower favorable gold price. 26.9 US dollars, an increase of 1.53%, a new high in nearly 7 months.

Although the price of gold recently fell slightly, the New York gold price rose again on October 3, indicating that traders believe that the long-term bullish outlook for gold bullion has not been touched. On the same day, the gold price for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed at $1,779.80 per ounce, or 0.2%, and hit an intraday high of $1,784 per ounce.