An estimated gold reserve of 50 tonnes has been unearthed at the Xilaokou gold mine in eastern China’s Shandong province.
The economic value of the country's largest single deposit of the precious metal is estimated at almost $28.5 billionChinese state-run gold producer Shandong Gold Mining announced on Friday that its controlling shareholder had discovered an additional 200 tons of gold resources at the Xiling gold mine in Laizhou in Shandong Province in eastern China.
The discovery brings the total cumulative gold reserve of the mine to 580 tons, making it the country's largest deposit of the precious metal, with an estimated economic value of 200 billion yuan ($28.5 billion).
© China Folio
The Xiling gold mine is nearly 2,000 meters long and just over 2,000 meters wide, with a maximum thickness of 62.35 meters. The gold ore density averages 4.26 grams of gold per tonne. The deposit is estimated to be able to produce 10,000 tons of gold ore per day for the next 30 years.
"We drilled more than 180 holes over 300,000 meters. One of the drill holes is 4,006.17 meters deep, a precedent for small-diameter drilling in our country," Feng Tao, deputy general manager of Shandong Gold Group, which owns the mine, said about the discovery.
In March, China reported the discovery of a huge gold deposit with a reserve of nearly 50 tons, the value of which was estimated at around $3 billion. The discovery was made in the rural city of Rushan, also located in Shandong Province.
The northeastern region of Shandong is home to China's largest gold mine reserves, with the highest gold output and deposits nationwide, according to the China Gold Association.
In the first quarter of the current year, China reportedly produced 84.97 tons of raw gold, marking an increase of 1.88% from the previous year. Meanwhile, the country's gold consumption reached just over 291 tons, a year-on-year surge of 12%.
In california though there was greater amounts of fracturing and siliceous intrusions that leached the gold from the host country rock into the hot silicate liquid that flowed up through the fractures in the host rock.
When the pressure dropped in the silicate solution it allowed the gold to precipitate out and form native free mill gold deposits. Those deposits in turn weathered away and turned into the very well known placer deposits.
Further north, in oregon and washington there was not as much of this type of host rock fracturing due to the way the juan de fuca plate interacts with the north american plate.
The gold is still there, but it is still in ore form, not native free mill gold or the resulting placers...
The gold in northern california and southern oregon when found in free mill gold is often found in super secondary enriched pockets where it WAS able to be leached from the host rock through hot liquids flowing through the host rock's fractures. For instance, read about the Gold Hill Strike, or the Brigg's Pocket Mine.
The populace of this country has no stomach for the mining needed to access the gold.
There is also a vast abundance of nickel, chrome, copper, and josephinite from northern california through southern oregon.
It is a very well known copper belt in fact. Again though, the populace in this country has no stomach for the mining industry so the economies of (far) northern california and southern oregon languish.