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Friday, 23rd February 2007 (3854 views)

A new "gold fingerprinting" technique could help South African authorities trace stolen gold hauls, according to reports.

Scientists hope to show that, by using chemical impurities, they can show that stolen gold is being sold as jewellers' off cuts.

By analysing the chemical makeup of some of the stolen gold, scientists are able to show the region or mine it originated from, meaning stolen gold can be traced back across the globe.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in the US, Henriette Ueckermann, of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, explained the technique.

She said "it is possible to clearly discriminate between gold from within various parts of the Witwatersrand Basin [a gold producing region of South Africa] and gold from other Southern African and world-wide sources," reports the Guardian.

She added: "Furthermore, there is a clear discrimination between bullion, manufactured gold alloys and illegally produced gold."

The system works by analysing the impurities in the gold, comparing it to a database of collected samples from different origins.

And experts hope the system will help in the crackdown of illegal gold theft and smuggling, as currently only two per cent of South Africa's stolen gold is actually recovered.

 

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