The Hidden Risk
Central banks now purchase over 1,000 tons of gold each year, with private and institutional investors holding thousands more in vaults worldwide.
A mere 1 % tungsten inclusion in a gold bar reduces its value by roughly $18,000 USD — compromising integrity and trust.
Because tungsten’s density differs only slightly from gold, such adulterations are nearly undetectable by density or X‑ray tests.
Silver bars, on the other hand, can be counterfeited using copper with some tungsten added to match the expected density. Both issues are easily exposed through the
IQ100’s resistance measurement technology.
The Seasabre Solution — The IQ100
The IQ100 measures end‑to‑end electrical resistance of bullion bars with a resolution as fine as
100 pico‑ohms (0.1 nano‑ohms) — over 1,000× better than other high-resolution ohmmeters.
Its patent‑pending dual‑contact design eliminates end-effect error sources, providing definitive, non‑destructive purity
validation. Resistivity is an intrinsic property of all materials, and tungsten has 2.4 times the resistivity of gold,
making tungsten inclusions in gold bars detectible with accurate electrical resistance measurements.
| Measurement Type | End‑to‑End Electrical Resistance |
|---|
| Resolution | 100 pico‑ohms (0.1 nano‑ohms) |
|---|
| Accuracy | ± 0.1 % |
|---|
| Detection Limit | < 0.5 % tungsten in gold |
|---|
| Bar Capacity | Gold ≤ 400 oz | Silver ≤ 1000 oz |
|---|
| Interface | Digital logging / NIST‑traceable calibration |
|---|
| Patent Status | Patent Pending (Seasabre Inc.) |
|---|
Applications
- Central bank bullion audits
- Precious metal refiners and mints
- Bullion vault operators & exchange verifiers
- Independent assay and authentication services
From institutional custody to private vault assurance, the IQ100 delivers laboratory certainty outside the lab.
Existing bullion validation methods fall short
- Core drilling is destructive and can miss inclusions
- XRF has shallow penetration and only identifies surface material
- Xrays penetrate gold poorly and have trouble identifying inclusions
- Ultrasound can be defeated with tungsten-epoxy fills that match gold's acoustic impedance
- Eddy current testing only penetrates to a very limited depth
- Density measurements are time consuming and can miss small inclusions
- Most other ohmmeters do not have sufficient resolution and suffer from end-effect errors
The IQ100 is under development. Future beta testing arrangemnts are currently being sought.