A high-quality gold ore deposit containing nearly 1,000 metric tons (1,100 US tons) of the precious metal has been discovered in central China, according to Chinese state media. The discovery, valued at approximately 600 billion yuan or US$83 billion, could be considered the largest and most profitable gold reserve ever found, surpassing the 900 metric tons estimated at the South Deep mine in the South, the mother of all gold reserves. Africa.

The Hunan Provincial Geological Bureau announced the discovery of 40 gold veins at a depth of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in northeastern Hunan’s Pingjiang County. These alone were thought to contain 300 metric tonnes of gold, and 3D modeling suggests additional reserves may be found at depths of 3 kilometres.

“Many rock cores drilled showed visible gold,” said bureau researcher Chen Rulin.

Core samples show that each metric ton of ore may contain up to 138 grams (almost 5 ounces) of gold; This is an extraordinary level of quality, considering that ore extracted from underground mines is considered high quality if it contains more than 8 grams.

China already dominates the global gold market, with reserves estimated to exceed 2,000 tonnes by early 2024, and its mining industry accounts for around 10 percent of global production. The announcement of the discovery further boosted the price of gold, which was already rising as demand for the resource continues to rise amid global uncertainty.

It’s unclear how many precious ore gold mines there are around the world waiting to be discovered, as experts disagree on whether we’ve reached peak gold. Our planet’s bright veins are a finite resource that took many years to sediment into an easily extractable form, forged in the crucible of interlocking stars long before Earth was formed.

Based on these latest findings, we may be far from running out of economically viable reserves. Core samples from around the Hunan province suggest that the deposit may extend further than previously thought, turning the reservoir beneath its soil into a literal dragon.