Fake Gold Bars Discovered At Australia’s Perth Mint, Chinese Forgery Factory Uncovered

Less than a month ago news broke that 10 PAMP gold bars filled with tungsten had been discovered in Manhattan. An SD reader then discovered a Chinese firm openly promoting the sale and production of tungsten filled gold bars and coins.
The tungsten filled gold scandal has just gotten exponentially larger, as an Australian Seven News investigation discovered 300 fake Perth Mint gold bars and uncovered a Chinese gold ‘forgery factory’.

The investigators were able to purchase 300 Chinese sourced 1oz gold bars for a total of $300- and to no one’s surprise, when the investigators melted down the bars, all 300 were discovered to contain roughly the same gold content as Fort Knox.

Seven News reports:

An Australian mint has called in the Federal Police after being shown evidence by Seven News that its gold bars are being counterfeited.

The investigation uncovered Chinese ‘forgery factories’ that will churn out fake bullion and even Australian coins, for a fraction of their face value.

Just one of the bars (seen below) should be worth more than $1,700.

 

The fake bars discovered are reportedly Perth Mint Kangaroos:

“There are some poor people out there who have gone and bought these products thinking they’ve got a bargain and have actually been ripped off,” Ron Currie from the Perth Mint said.

At Wenzhou, in China’s south east, a suspicious discovery is made after taking a tour of one factory that makes medals and badges – there are thousands of samples.

On the front is stamped “Perth Mint Australia”, on the back are kangaroos – a close copy of the actual design used by the mint.

The tour guide doesn’t hold back when quizzed about the procedure.

“First we did the silver plating, then the gold plating,” he said.

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