Believe it or not, the earth still holds many secrets, and gold deposits are no exception. There is a mountain of solid rock in the heart of China that contains a treasure buried almost as deep as Everest is high. Imagine the surprise of Chinese geologists when they investigated and discovered the following: a super-giant gold deposit. This amazing find could contain more than 1,000 tons of the precious metal, with an estimated value exceeding US$83 billion.
The figure is so absurdly large that it has forced the mining industry to ask itself, have we underestimated what can be done with ultra-deep mining? Deep mining is very expensive and difficult to carry out, but with an incentive such as reaching one of the largest gold deposits on the planet, people are changing their minds.
As if China did not already have the wind in its sails, it could now make a strategic move that would position it perfectly in the global gold market. At a time when economic systems are not very sustainable, returning to the gold standard and taking refuge in the precious metal is a rather reassuring prospect. The deposit is located in the Wangu gold field, located in Pingjiang County, in the mountainous province of Hunan, right in the center of China.
The underground gold deposit
The Hunan Provincial Geological Bureau was quick to confirm the news: so far, 300 tons of gold have been identified that are relatively easy to access if drilling is carried out to a depth of 2,000 meters, with the remaining 700 tons projected based on a 3D geological model that has been created. It appears that the veins continue to a depth of 3,000 meters.
As if that weren’t enough, experts are excited about the quality of this gold, which is exceptional because they have found high-grade samples: 138 grams of gold per ton (g/t) of rock. To put this in context for a non-mining reader: most modern mines operate at only 1 to 5 g/t to be profitable. This is literally a verylucrative gold mine.
With more than 1,000 tons, this deposit would exceed the volume of the South Deep mine in South Africa (which holds ∼930 tons), potentially becoming the largest known gold deposit in the world.
A prosperous geological area
The Wangu area is located within the Jiangnan orogenic belt. This “belt” is like an ancient scar where two continents or blocks of the Earth’s crust collided millions of years ago. These faults acted as underground “highways” for hydrothermal fluids—hot water supersaturated with minerals.
Over time and with changes in pressure and temperature, the gold dissolved in these fluids precipitated and solidified in the surrounding rock, forming more than 40 veins.
This discovery was made possible by deep science, not luck. The geological team used advanced 3D geological modeling to map the interior structures of the mountain and direct drilling thousands of meters below the surface. Not even a fragment of Jules Verne’s imagination could have imagined that humans would be capable of such feats.
Now the big obstacle is extracting the gold. Mining at depths of between 2,000 and 3,000 meters is both costly and dangerous: it requires advanced technical systems to manage the high pressure of the rock and control groundwater. It also requires extreme ventilation and cooling, as these depths are already subject to geothermal heat. The complete development of a mine of this complexity, from discovery to the start of extraction, typically takes between 10 and 20 years. For now, China is going to carry out more drilling and rigorous feasibility studies before getting down to work.
When the Wangu mine is operational, estimated annual production will likely be between 15 and 50 tons per year. To give you an idea, current global production is 3,600 tons of gold per year. Therefore, the Chinese mine will not flood the market and cause it to collapse at first.