One Of The World’s Largest Gold Deposits Worth Around $83 Billion Dollars Was Discovered In China
Gold is an ancient metal that has been prized throughout human history. Even today, it is still very valuable. One of the largest gold deposits on Earth was recently discovered in China.
It is potentially worth around $83 billion, which would make it the largest single reservoir of the precious metal anywhere on Earth. The new deposit has caused the global price of gold to skyrocket.
According to the Geological Bureau of Hunan Province (GBHP), it was uncovered at the Wangu gold mine in the northeast Hunan county of Pingjiang. More than 40 gold veins were detected at a depth of 6,600 feet.
There were around 330 tons of gold, but mining experts used three-dimensional computer models to predict up to 1,100 tons of gold hidden about 9,800 feet deep.
This would surpass the 1,025 tons estimated to lie in the South Deep mine in South Africa, which is considered to be the mother of all gold reserves.
If the prediction is true, the entire Hunan deposit could be worth 600 billion yuan, or $83 billion. Core samples suggest that the maximum quality of the new deposit was 138 grams of gold per metric ton of ore.
Compared to most other gold mines around the world, the level of quality is extraordinary, considering that ore excavated from underground mines is high-grade if it contains more than eight grams.
During test drills, more gold was found around the edges of the new site, indicating that other large deposits are waiting to be discovered in the future.
Due to inconsistencies in the rate of extractions and a lack of transparency in reporting output from mining operations, keeping track of the amount of gold remaining in mines across the globe is challenging. Previously, the largest known gold reserves on Earth were in South Africa’s South Deep gold mine.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
News of the discovery in Hunan caused the price of gold to jump to approximately $2,700 per ounce. China already dominates the global gold market as the biggest producer of gold in the world. The country contributes to around 10 percent of the global output as of 2023.
However, China still uses three times more gold than it can produce. So, they rely on importing gold from other countries like South Africa and Australia.
The new gold deposit could help solve this issue temporarily. But it would not be a viable long-term fix because the entire deposit would only meet the country’s needs for about 1.4 years, based on current consumption rates.
By the end of 2023, an estimated total of 234,332 tons of gold had been dug up in all of human history. Since 1950, more than two-thirds of this amount has been extracted.
More About:News
Read This Next
