Discovery of 1,000 tons of gold reserves in the Kunlun Mountains of China

According to reports published by Chinese geologists, they have announced that they have found a large potential gold reserve in the Kunlun Mountains in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. According to these reports, this new reserve, if its authenticity is proven in the next stages, can yield more than 1000 tons of gold.

This deposit is not described as a single mass, but as a belt including scattered veins. This discovery is still in a very early stage and is currently considered more of a potential than a definite reserve. This indicates that only a portion of it may eventually be converted into mineable ore. Accordingly, estimates remain theoretical until decades of drilling prove continuity, grade, and the possibility of mining at depth.

In a paper published in the journal Acta Geoscientica Sinica, He Fubao, senior engineer of the geology team, explained with his colleagues that “the outline of a thousand-ton-scale gold belt in western Kunlun, Xinjiang is now taking shape.”

According to the report of the South China Morning Post, this discovery is the third gold reserve of over 1,000 tons that has been announced in China over the past year. Two other cases were reported in Liaoning Province in the northeast and Hunan Province in central China.

The Liaoning reserve is reported to have a potential of 1,444 tons of gold. According to reports, this reserve may have an average grade of around 0.56g/t, making it a low-grade reserve. This means that nearly 2 tons of rock must be mined to produce every 1 gram of gold. Therefore, the extraction of 1,400 tons of gold requires moving about 2.5 million tons of ore.

Although the volume of this reserve is large, its profitability depends on energy, labor and logistics operations. The third reserve discovered, the Vango field, appears to be of significant geological importance. According to reports, the reserve consists of several deep veins located at a depth of 2,000 meters to 3,000 meters. Some samples have very high grades, for example 138g/t, But these cases are limited points and so-called “sweet points”. Preliminary modeling suggests that there may be more than 1,000 tonnes of gold within the wider structure of the system. However, mining at such depths is very expensive. Therefore, this reserve is geologically the most promising, but economically the most costly.

Prior to these discoveries, the world’s largest known gold deposits typically contained only a few hundred tons of gold. In addition, estimates showed that there are only about 3,000 tons of gold left in all of China that have not yet been mined; A figure that is approximately equivalent to a quarter of the remaining reserves in Russia and Australia.

This rapid wave of potential gold discoveries in China is considered significant, as China has greatly expanded its geological exploration in recent years. Beijing has pledged to achieve self-sufficiency in metals to reduce foreign dependence and secure what it describes as “national strategic reserves”. Accordingly, China is now aggressively exploring less explored areas.

Reports indicate that China’s geological potential for gold is greater than what old western models assumed. Many mining belts in central and western China have never experienced deep drilling.