Geological Bureau of Hunan Province announces detection of 40 gold veins in northeast Hunan county
\n beijing
\nA deposit of high-quality gold ore containing around 1,000 metric tons (1,100 US tons) of yellow metal has been found in central China, valued at 600 billion yuan or US $83 billion, the Chinese state media reported.
\nThe founding of the reservoir was announced by the Geological Bureau of Hunan Province which detected 40 gold veins within a depth of 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) in the northeast county of Pingjiang, according to Science Alert.
\nThe discovery could be considered the largest and most lucrative reservoir of gold ever uncovered, surpassing the over 900 metric tons of gold reserves to lie within the South Deep mine in South Africa.
\nThese 40 veins were thought to contain 300 metric tons of gold with further 3D modelling suggesting additional reserves could possibly be found at a depth of 3 kilometres. The gold is expected to be eight times heavier than the Statue of Liberty, as per Live Science.
\n\u201cMany drilled rock cores showed visible gold,\u201d said bureau prospector Chen Rulin.
\nOfficials revealed that every metric ton could contain around 138 grams or nearly 5 ounces of gold, which is relatively high considering ore excavated from underground mines is considered high grade if it contains if it contains more than 8 grams.
\nSamples of the core taken from the site hint that the deposit could extend further than it was thought to before, making it a massive gold haul.
\nChina is already the country to produce the most bullion in the world, accounting for around 10% of the global gold output in 2023, as per Reuters.
\nHowever, it still uses gold more than it can produce as it consumes three times more than it can produce or dig up. In turn, it heavily relies on importing gold from other countries such as Australia and South Africa.
\nThe new gold deposit in Hunan can aid China in alleviating some of the lack but it still won\u2019t take the country out of the problem entirely.
\nThe entire deposit can only supply the nation\u2019s needs for around 1.4 years when the current consumption rates are observed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Geological Bureau of Hunan Province announces detection of 40 gold veins in northeast Hunan county beijing A deposit of high-quality gold ore containing around 1,000 metric tons (1,100 US tons) of yellow metal has been found in central China, valued at 600 billion yuan or US $83 billion, the Chinese state media reported. The founding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-446513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n