&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "China's 'gold veins' worth $83bn in Wangu are different than others. Here's why")
Gold worth roughly $83 billion has been discovered in a gold field in China. The Geological Bureau of Hunan Province claims they have come across visible gold flakes in drill cores at the Wangu gold field in Pingjiang County. The drill cores have been pulled out from a depth of more than two kilometres and have been at work for the past year. Chen Rulin, a prospector with the Geological Bureau of Hunan Province, said, "Many drilled rock cores showed visible gold." The gold is present inside metal tubes and isn't microscopic or chemically bound to other minerals. This is unusual, as experts say there are visible flakes and concentrations of gold. Scientists relied on advanced 3D geological modelling, deep-drilling technology, and AI analysis of geochemical data to map the veins. They claim that preliminary reserves of 300 tonnes are present at a depth of 2,000 metres, and this could go as high as 1,000 tonnes at 3,000 metres.
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More grams of gold per tonne compared to any other site
The Wangu gold field has been a centre of attention for the provincial geological agency. If these estimates prove to be true, it will soar past the South Deep mine in South Africa, which holds approximately 900 metric tonnes of gold reserves. The gold discovery is not the only selling point of the Wangu gold field. A ton of ore yielded 138 grams per tonne in one sample. This is surprising since most commercial mines operate at grades below 10 grams per tonne. This means that more gold can be extracted from less rock as compared to other fields. What's more, peripheral drilling around the main site showed that the gold could extend to areas not seen in the current maps.
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How are gold veins formed?
Some studies explain how gold veins, the kind seen at Wangu, come to be formed. According to a peer-reviewed study published in Nature Geoscience, a mechanical-chemical link explains the "gold nuggets". When earthquakes occur, intense mechanical pressure stresses quartz found in many gold-bearing veins, which generates localised electric charges. They act as a catalyst, causing the immediate electrochemical precipitation of gold out of the hot, mineral-rich hydrothermal fluids flowing through the cracks. If this is true, then the gold veins with high-grade pockets found at Wangu are the result of sudden, concentrated deposition instead of slow chemical accumulation over thousands of years.
