China announces major gold discovery

The economic value of the country’s largest single deposit of the precious metal is estimated at almost $28.5 billion.

Chinese state-run gold producer Shandong Gold Mining announced on Friday that its controlling shareholder had discovered an additional 200 tons of gold resources at the Xiling gold mine in Laizhou in Shandong Province in eastern China.

The discovery brings the total cumulative gold reserve of the mine to 580 tons, making it the country’s largest deposit of the precious metal, with an estimated economic value of 200 billion yuan ($28.5 billion).

The Xiling gold mine is nearly 2,000 meters long and just over 2,000 meters wide, with a maximum thickness of 62.35 meters. The gold ore density averages 4.26 grams of gold per tonne. The deposit is estimated to be able to produce 10,000 tons of gold ore per day for the next 30 years.

“We drilled more than 180 holes over 300,000 meters. One of the drill holes is 4,006.17 meters deep, a precedent for small-diameter drilling in our country,” Feng Tao, deputy general manager of Shandong Gold Group, which owns the mine, said about the discovery.

In March, China reported the discovery of a huge gold deposit with a reserve of nearly 50 tons, the value of which was estimated at around $3 billion. The discovery was made in the rural city of Rushan, also located in Shandong Province.

The northeastern region of Shandong is home to China’s largest gold mine reserves, with the highest gold output and deposits nationwide, according to the China Gold Association.

In the first quarter of the current year, China reportedly produced 84.97 tons of raw gold, marking an increase of 1.88% from the previous year. Meanwhile, the country’s gold consumption reached just over 291 tons, a year-on-year surge of 12%.

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