The thirst for gold knows no bounds. A typical safe haven for a planet and investors worried by geopolitical upheavals, between trade wars announced by Donald Trump, the war waged against Ukraine by Russia or extreme tensions around Taiwan and the threat from Beijing, the precious metal is currently reaching a record price of $2,800 per ounce (Stock Market).
The central banks themselves are rushing into available stocks: as Bloomberg reports, those of the countries of Eastern Europe are thus in the process of building up comfortable mattresses of gold, the Czech Republic wishing for example double its haul of 100 tonnes in the next three years.
That of China can therefore rub its hands following the announcement made by the Geological Bureau of the province of Hunan, relayed on November 20 in a state media and then taken up by Livescience: local scientists have discovered a new vein giant under the Wangu goldfield.
China seen from the sky by the GEO Community
40 veins, 1,100 tons of gold and 83 billion dollars
40 new gold veins have been discovered in this precious part of the Pingjiang region. It’s colossal: the total reserve of gold to be extracted could represent 1,000 tonnes, and would be, according to Livescience, the largest in the world currently.
It is specified that 330 tonnes of gold were discovered by Chinese miners and geologists at a depth of approximately 2,000 meters, but that computer models and scientific expertise made it possible to determine that this amount could rise to 1 100 tonnes by digging 1,000 meters deeper. This represents, specifies the Anglo-Saxon site, eight times the weight of the Statue of Liberty.
According to the words of one of the geologists involved in the discovery, reported by the Chinese state website, the vein contains 138 grams of gold per metric ton of minerals extracted, which is relatively rich compared to other mines in the world. .
Precious gold reserves in Chinese soil
According to Statistita, the discovery adds an appreciable new wealth to Chinese soils, already very rich in these rare metals, earths and minerals that the modern world values so much. Australia remains the “richest” country, in potential at least, with soils theoretically containing 12,000 tonnes of gold. Russia closely follows the Oceanian giant with 11,000 tonnes, with South Africa third with estimated reserves of 5,000 tonnes of gold.
It is also in the latter country that, according to figures from Mining Technology taken up by Livescience, lies what has now become the second largest deposit in the world, the South Deep mine and gold fields, with a reserve estimated at 1,025 tons of gold.
But if, as Oilprice notes, China is currently the largest producer of gold in the world, it is also the largest consumer, its purchases exceeding 370 tonnes produced per year. On its own, without counting all the other uses that gold can have, in the technological or luxury industries in particular, the Chinese central bank has thus acquired, on the markets, 225 tonnes of the precious metal in 2023 for its coffers.
There is no doubt that Beijing is delighted with this colossal discovery in the Wangu field, with scientists also specifying that surveys carried out in its immediate surroundings could promise other Eldorados of the same type.
For fourteen years, from 2002 to 2016, Thomas Burgel officiated at Inrockuptibles, navigating between this paper magazine which was his youth, and in which he learned to write, and the website of the title, of which he was responsible and whose developments he accompanied. His favorite field? The music. It was pretty good: if he has a few, this last one is his main passion, the one that brings together and connects all the others, all these varied interests that have always driven his thinking about the world and its cultures – history to technology, from sociology to the convolutions of the human soul, from science to geography, from video games to the personal exploration of territories and their specific cultures. It is therefore quite natural that once this long introduction to “Inrocks” is finished, and after a passage and the animation of the media Europavox.com, dedicated to European music and written by an editorial team of 30 journalists located in as many from scattered countries, Thomas was chosen by Slate to create and support korii. The latter is the section of the famous pure player dedicated to new economies and new technologies, and to the profound and rapidly changing impact they can have on our daily lives, on our societies, on our world and on its new conflicts – in particular the large-scale one led by Russia in Ukraine, which he has followed very closely since its launch in February 2022. All these interests, all these passions, all these intersections, it is now within GEO that he explores them: 2023, Thomas Burgel has become deputy editor-in-chief, specifically responsible for leading the website of the venerable title, and its expert teams, towards new horizons.
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