Precious metal deposits
China finds gold treasure worth 80 billion euros
China is the largest consumer of gold. Now researchers have found a cache with more than 1,000 tons of the precious metal. This roughly corresponds to the country’s annual requirements.
The Hunan Academy of Geology has discovered more than 40 veins of gold ore in Pingjiang County at a depth of over 2,000 meters. A total of 300.2 tons were found in the area explored so far. In total, the deposit is said to contain more than 1,000 tons of gold.
“Many drilled rock cores show visible gold,” said Chen Rulin, an expert at the Academy. He said that one ton of ore in the 2,000-meter range contains up to 138 grams of gold. The gold field in the region is one of China’s most important gold mining areas Since 2020, the provincial authorities have invested more than 13 million euros in exploration.
Of 55 drillings over 1,500 meters deep, 48 struck gold. The success rate of 87.3 percent was made possible by a new type of three-dimensional mapping of the soil layers. Wu Jun, director of the Hunan Provincial Geological Disaster Research Institute, said the gold field is the largest gold deposit discovered in Hunan’s history. There are only about five gold deposits of this size nationwide.
China’s hunger for gold
China is already the world’s largest gold producer. In 2023, around 380 of the 3,000 tons mined worldwide were taken out of the ground here. But above all, China is the world’s largest consumer. In the first three quarters of 2024, demand was 741 tons and production was 268 tons. In 2023, China “consumed” 910 tons.
Demand for gold is increasing worldwide. After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, central banks increasingly turned to gold to diversify their currency reserves. There is also strong demand from private individuals from countries such as China, but also from India. Gold is found in many devices such as cell phones – people try to recycle it there. However, a large part of the precious metal is hoarded. Central banks mine foreign currencies and use them to buy gold, which is ultimately just stored. In many Asian countries, gold also has a long tradition as a safe investment – it survives unrest and economic crises. There it is invested not only in bars, but also in jewelry – as a family emergency reserve. In a sense, gold is invisible and can easily be removed from the grasp of the state or of creditors.
Goldman Sachs and Bloomberg assume that gold will increase in value by 2025. Goldman Sachs even predicts that the price will reach $3,000 an ounce by the end of next year, about twelve percent more than today. Rising prices make the precious metal even more attractive for investors.
Source: Stern
