ARTICLE: WAS ROYAL CANADIAN MINT GOLD SMUGGLED OUT IN ACID?
The E-Sylum (7/19/2009)
Book Content
An article published this week speculates that the gold missing from the Royal Canadian Mint was somehow smuggled out in liquid form. -Editor
Was $15 million worth of gold stolen from the Royal Canadian Mint by dissolving it in acid, rendering it invisible to metal detectors?Two gold-refining industry sources say gold chloride dissolved in an acid solution can be unrecognizable to metal detectors, such as those guarding the mint’s high-security Sussex Drive refinery in Ottawa — and the method might explain the recently announced disappearance of more than half a metric ton of gold from the mint’s inventory.
A similar method was used to hide two Nobel laureates’ gold medals from the Nazis when Germany occupied Denmark in 1940.
The mint dissolves gold in hydrochloric acid as part of the process to refine the precious metal to 99.99 and 99.999 per cent purity, the finest gold in the world.
The process electro-chemically disintegrates the metal into imperceptible particles of gold chloride suspended in the black-coloured acid solution.
"Being a high-security facility, the mint does not discuss its various security procedures and protocols," said Christine Aquino, mint spokeswoman. "But I can confirm that we have methods to detect such a liquid."
To read the complete article, see: Thieves might have smuggled mint gold in acid, say experts (http://www.canada.com/Thieves+might+have+smuggled
+mint+gold+acid+experts/1784193/story.html)
We discussed the fate of the Nobel gold medals earlier in The E-Sylum. To read the article, see: INTERESTING NOBEL PRIZE MEDAL LORE (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v09n51a30.html)