Researchers in China have just discovered $83 billion worth of untouched gold.
The news about the incredible find broke earlier this week when a research team unearthed enormous amounts of gold reserves.
The fortune was located in central Hunan province by Hunan Academy of Geology.
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China is already the world’s leading producer of gold, being responsible for 10% of the entire world’s output in 2023, according to the World Gold Council.
Over 40 gold ore veins were found more than 2,000 meters deep into the ground.
And it gets even better - a whopping 300.2 tons of gold reserves were uncovered.
But how did they find it? The team used 3D geological modeling to locate the gold as well as mechanical drills to dig to the area.
Chen Rulin, who is an ore-prospecting expert, told Xinhua Net: “Many drilled rock cores showed visible gold.”
The team are planning to keep digging down to 3,000 meters, where it’s been predicted that there’s a staggering 1,000 tons of ore hiding under the surface.
All of this gold will be worth some serious money, with the discovery valued at around 600 billion yuan - which is the equivalent of $83 billion.
And that isn’t the only good fortune that’s been had by researchers recently.
Over in California, a whopping $540 billion worth of ‘white gold’ has been found.
The lithium was located at the bottom of a lake known as Salton Sea.
Scientists have estimated that this is enough material to power the batteries in 382 electric vehicles.
Michael McKibben, who is one of the study’s authors and a geochemistry professor at the
University of California, said: “This is one of the largest lithium brine deposits in the world.
“This could make the United States completely self-sufficient in lithium and stop importing it through China.”
Unbelievably, if this proves to be true then it could mean huge changes for the global economy.
First of all, the US could potentially become completely self-sufficient when it comes to lithium.
So it could be a pretty big blow to China if the US was no longer importing their EVs.
And the US would then be exporting more of its own EVs too, which would have a knock-on effect on the rest of the big exporters.
The US could increase their exports and their market share, making them more money and establishing themselves as EV leaders - something Elon Musk would certainly be celebrating.