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Re:Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home fro... by signaturefish on Monday June 23, 2025 @07:59AM (#44354870)
On the individual scale, something like a Sigma Metalytics resistivity analyser (passes an electric field through the sample, checks to see if resistivity, conductivity, weight or size all match up to what you'd expect from a homogeneous gold sample of that size or weight. On the commercial scale, an XRF spectrometer. Both methods are completely non-destructive, and highly accurate (the XRF more so).

(the two scales are due to price and bulk: the Sigma is about the size of a hardback book and a few hundred pounds, an XRF is the size of a large 3d-printer and many thousands).

Re:Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home fro... by hoseja on Monday June 23, 2025 @08:27AM (#44355085)
Does XRF penetrate the sample? Isn't it a surface measurement?
Re:Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home fro... by signaturefish on Monday June 23, 2025 @10:02AM (#44355915)
XRF will go a millimetre or so into the sample AFAIK - it's mainly useful for finding alloy contamination, e.g. "this is 99.99% gold" vs "this is 73% gold and 27% other things" - you really want to use both techniques. Resistivity/conductivity is about average composition, XRF is about elemental purity.
Re:Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home fro... by weberer on Monday June 23, 2025 @09:01AM (#44355383)
They have handheld XRF analyzers nowadays. They cost around $20k.
Re:Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home fro... by signaturefish on Monday June 23, 2025 @09:56AM (#44355865)
Huh, impressive - I guess I'm out of date (and/or the people I listen to about such things have a working XRF already and don't want to replace a working unit).
Re:Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home fro... by yread on Monday June 23, 2025 @03:06PM (#44358982)
You can get a used one for like 3k. I don't really need it but I have it on my santa's list for ages already. One day he will deliver I hope
Re:Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home fro... by amelius on Monday June 23, 2025 @10:43AM (#44356327)
Interesting. How deep into a gold bar would that work?