A new gold superdeposit is discovered in China

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find large gold deposits. Not because the metal is about to run out, but because the easy deposits were discovered decades ago. Even so, from time to time, the Earth surprises. Under kilometers of rock, in geological silences that last hundreds of millions of years, colossal accumulations of the most coveted metal in history are still hidden. The last example comes from China, where a team of scientists has announced the possible existence of a “super-deposit” of gold at great depth. According to preliminary estimates, the amount could exceed one thousand tons, a figure difficult to imagine: more gold than some countries have extracted in their entire modern history. If confirmed, it would be one of the largest deposits ever identified. In Uzbekistan, in the middle of the Kyzylkum desert, is Muruntau, considered for years the largest gold deposit on the planet. The mine, visible from satellites like a gigantic scar on Earth, holds estimated reserves of thousands of tons and has been supporting a large part of the world’s production for decades.

Something similar happens in Indonesia, in the Grasberg complex, famous for its copper, but also for its immense gold reserves, or in Nevada (USA), where several connected mines form one of the largest gold-producing systems in the world. In Yanacocha (Peru), a deposit so vast that it altered the regional economy and turned the area into one of the world’s epicenters of the precious metal was exploited for years.