The Mint Division of Nepal Rastra Bank has completed melting the gold that was seized during an inspection outside the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu last month.
According to Thaneshwar Acharya, chief of the Mint Division, the total weight of the gold was found to be 60.716 kilograms after melting it. He said that 36 gold bars have been made from the melted gold.
The melting process had started on Tuesday morning.
On Monday, the Mint Division had removed the gold from the brake shoes it was concealed in after receiving a letter from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police. The total weight of the gold then was found to be 60.789 kilograms.
The Mint Division said that it will test the gold’s quality within three days.
A team from the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) had confiscated a huge quantity of gold hidden inside brake shoes of scooters during a cargo inspection on July 18 after it had passed undetected through the airport customs.
The gold, whose total weight was initially estimated to be nearly 100 kilograms, was brought on a Cathay Pacific Airways flight from Hong Kong. The brake shoes were imported by Ready Trade Pvt Ltd.
The seized goods were packed in eight boxes and sent to the Mint Division on July 20 to determine the actual weight of the gold.
According to Acharya, each box contained 20 brake shoes.
