I think you're correct. Pure gold is extremely hard to dissolve or oxidize. There's three common methods, using a mercury amalgam(which is an alloying, so the gold is still unreacted), cyanide, or a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acid called aqua regia.

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Toxicity, the gold ion is toxic, but there are no chemical processes known to occur in the human body that can solubilize metallic gold.