A deposit of gold amounting to more than 1,100 tons “with an estimated value of more than $83 billion in U.S. dollars has been discovered in central China,” reports Coin World.
Geologists for China’s Hunan province discovered 40 veins of gold beneath the Wangy gold field in Hunan’s Pingjiang County.
The gold deposit is even bigger than the 990-ton gold deposit believed to be beneath the 1.25 mile deep South Deep Mine in South Africa. That mine is located in the Witwatersrand Basin, 30 miles southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa’s biggest city.
Hunan geologists’ preliminary drilling results show 330 tons of gold in the veins below a depth of 6,500 feet, with an additional 770 tons extending to a depth of 1.9 miles.
Coin World reports that “GBHP mining experts have determined that ore samples taken at the gold discovery site suggest that every metric ton of ore could contain upwards of 138 grams of pure gold.”
At the Dec. 6 closing spot price of gold, $2,633.56 per ounce, 138 grams of gold would be worth $12,820.
“Chinese mining experts indicate the quantity of pure gold per metric ton of ore is unprecedented, since eight grams of gold per metric ton of ore is considered high quality,” Coin World notes.
In other news, a vast, untapped supply of lithium has been found in Pennsylvania, but it may be tied up for years. Large amounts of lithium may also be found in the Great Salt Lake and the Salton Sea. A huge amount of lithium has also been detected in a volcano along the Nevada-Oregon border.
Artificial intelligence has discovered a new material that could reduce lithium use in batteries and thus our dependence on China.
