Despite humankind’s obsession with heavily scrutinizing every square inch of our planet, the Earth apparently still keeps plenty of secrets to ourselves. Some are actual treasures that would impress J.R.R. Tolkien himself.
We are not talking about dragons and mythological creatures, but about gold reservoirs deep within Earth’s crust. Deep inside a solid rock mountain in central China lies a fortune buried at a depth that rivals the height of Mount Everest. You can picture how shocked the local geologists were when they started digging and stumbled upon a massive amount of gold. This incredible discovery is thought to hold over 1,000 tons of the metal, which would be worth upwards of US$83 billion.
That number is so huge that the entire mining sector is questioning if they’ve been too pessimistic about the potential of digging that deep. Even though extracting resources from those depths is costly and tough, the chance to tap into one of the world’s biggest gold reserves is shifting perspectives.
China already has plenty of momentum, but this development could offer a strategic advantage, placing them in an ideal spot within the global gold market. With today’s economic systems looking a bit unstable, the idea of relying on the gold standard and finding safety in this asset is actually quite comforting. The site itself is in the Wangu gold field in Pingjiang County, tucked away in the mountainous Hunan province in central China.
A Smaug’s worthy hoard of gold underground
The Hunan Provincial Geological Bureau didn’t waste time confirming the report. They have already identified 300 tons that are fairly reachable by drilling down 2,000 meters, while 3D modeling suggests another 700 tons are waiting to be found. It seems the veins of gold extend all the way down to a depth of 3,000 meters.
On top of that, experts are thrilled about the quality of the ore, which is unusually high-grade. They have actually discovered samples containing 138 grams of gold for every ton of rock. To give you an idea of what that means: most mines today only need about 1 to 5 grams per ton to make a profit. This is, quite literally, a massive moneymaker.
With a total exceeding 1,000 tons, this site would beat the South Deep mine in South Africa (which has around 930 tons), possibly making it the biggest known gold deposit on Earth.
A region rich in resources
Wangu sits inside the Jiangnan orogenic belt. You can think of this belt as an ancient scar formed when two continental plates crashed into each other millions of years ago. Those cracks acted like underground freeways for super-hot water that was loaded with minerals.
As time went on and the pressure and temperature changed, the gold in that water settled out and hardened in the nearby rock, eventually creating more than 40 separate veins.
Finding this didn’t happen by chance; it was the result of serious scientific work. The team used high-tech 3D modeling to chart the mountain’s internal structure and guide drills thousands of meters down. Even a sci-fi writer like Jules Verne couldn’t have guessed that humans would eventually be able to do something like this.
The main hurdle now is actually getting the metal out of the ground. Digging down 2,000 to 3,000 meters is expensive and risky. It needs high-tech systems to handle the intense rock pressure and keep groundwater in check. You also need serious ventilation and cooling systems because it gets incredibly hot that far down due to the Earth’s internal temperature.
Building a mine this complex usually takes anywhere from 10 to 20 years from the moment it is found to the day mining starts. For the time being, China plans to do more drilling and run strict tests to see if the project is viable before breaking ground.
Once the Wangu mine is up and running, it will probably produce between 15 and 50 tons annually. To put that in perspective, the world currently produces about 3,600 tons of gold every year. So, this new Chinese mine won’t overwhelm the market or cause a price crash right away.