East Cocalico Township officials have shuttered a Reamstown home that contains unknown chemicals linked to an Internet "gold recovery" business that may have operated illegally.

Officials said Lancaster County HAZMAT and the state Department of Environmental Protection also are investigating the property at 4 E. Summit Drive, where building contractors recently discovered several 50-gallon drums and other smaller containers filled with unidentified chemicals.

The building, which is also the home of GoldmineWorld, is owned by June Kryston, who operates the business.

"The owners of the property hired contractors to work on the home that is going to be sold," Anthony Luongo, East Cocalico Township zoning officer, said. "The contractors got nervous when they saw the chemical containers in the basement and called authorities. We're in the process of cleaning up the place correctly."

Luongo, who said the home has been sealed off since Sunday, said some of the chemicals appear to have been used by Michael Voronyak, 64, a native of Russia who died in 2009 from cancer at Ephrata Community Hospital.

"It's been ruled out that the chemicals were used for drug manufacturing or are terror-related," Luongo said Wednesday.

Voronyak, who was renting the home before he died, launched GoldmineWorld and later became partners with Kryston.

Kryston said the business helps customers recover micron gold — very fine gold particles — and precious metals "from ordinary water sources."

"(GoldmineWorld) can devise the best method for the type of precious metals you intend to recover, whether colloidal, like that found in well waters and flooded mines, or more coarse, like that which appears in recovery from sand washers in aggregate processors," according to the company website.

While Kryston said GoldmineWorld is a retail operation that sells only equipment and supplies, she said Voronyak had used small quantities of chemicals to do testing on samples that customers had sent to the business prior to 2009.

"I'm just running the retail end of the business," Kryston said Thursday. "Anything that is related to my business is not hazardous. In his testing and processing, (Voronyak) would use some acids — some he got locally — I don't know the extent of where he got everything."

Kryston said she has been afraid to even touch Voronyak's collection of chemicals and is happy they will soon be identified and removed. She hired a Lititz company which will remove the chemicals Monday under the supervision of Lancaster County HAZMAT and East Cocalico Township officials.

"I was afraid to go into that section or even touch (Voronyak's) stuff until it came time where we had to finally clean that out," Kryston said. "I know ignorance is not an excuse, but I don't know the total inventory of (chemicals) in the basement."

Zoning officer Luongo said the township is investigating whether GoldmineWorld, which had no permits, operated legally.