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It is India’s first home-grown high purity gold reference standard
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High purity gold reference standard has been developed through collaboration between IGM, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) — Council of Scientific & Industrial Research-National Physical Laboratory (New Delhi) and National Centre for Compositional Characterisation of Materials (Hyderabad).
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The gold reference standard is indispensable in gold and jewellery hall marking.
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This reference will also be useful for Collection and Purity Testing Centres to certify purity of gold deposits under gold monetization scheme.
Significance:
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India despites being second largest markets for gold after China, goldsmiths in the country were depended on imported reference gold bars (mostly imported was sourced from Canada and Switzerland) to check purity of their biscuits, coins and jewellery.
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BND-4201 standard reference material will help to minimise dependency on foreign countries and add to Make in India campaign, saving foreign exchange.
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The BND-4201 standard gold bar are 25% cheaper than the imported version.
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It will also help jewellers to move towards more instrumental methods rather than conventional fire assay methods for testing purity of gold, which time consuming and non-environment friendly as poisonous gases are released.