Real story behind Africa's $12 trillion gold discovery after 31 million tonne rare metal discovery
The prospect of Uganda finding $12,000,000,000,000 worth of gold in a jaw-dropping discovery is certainly difficult to ignore, but one expert has revealed why the African country's claim might be a little too good to to be true.
Recently it feels like there have been a number of major material discoveries across the globe, between a manganese find in Japan that could fuel the country for decades and a 'white gold' discovery on American soil that many of the world's richest individuals are fighting for control over.
They all pale in comparison to what Uganda reportedly found back in 2022 though, as it represented one of (if not the) biggest rare metal discoveries across all of history.
What did Uganda claim it had found?
As reported by Reuters, the Ugandan government claimed back in June 2022 that it had found roughly 31,000,000 tonnes worth of gold ore deposits, which could be extracted into 320,158 tonnes of refined gold.
This discovery has been valued at a staggering figure of $12,000,000,000,000, which has understandably drawn the attention of many across the world who all want in on this landmark find.
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According to Solomon Muyita, a spokesperson for Uganda's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, scientists had conducted two years worth of aerial exploration of the gold-filled area, and then followed through with geophysical and geochemical surveys and analyses which identified the unbelievable amount of gold.
Yet perhaps 'unbelievable' is the right word, as Uganda's claims might not be all they're worked up to be, as one expert tears into the likely 'impossibility' of a gold rush this large.
Why is Uganda's gold claim likely fake news?
Despite all of the excitement surrounding Uganda's find, Luke Burgess of Outsider Club brought everyone back down to Earth with a well needed reality check by going over the facts of the situtation.
"Anyone who's spent even a little time researching the gold market will be immediately suspicious of this estimate," Burgess reveals, before laying out exactly why the numbers being reported would be a statistical impossibility.
For reference, the World Gold Council estimated in 2022 that roughly 205,238 tonnes of refined gold have been mined across all of history, with currently 53,000 tones of the valuable metal currently identified in underground reserves.
So, for Uganda to have found not only over six times the amount of identified gold still on Earth, but 56% more gold than has ever been mined across human history would be quite the achievement.
It is within the gold grade of this particular discovery that Burgess finds the most issue though, which is calculated by dividing the total ore weight by the refined weight.
Currently the highest-grade commercial gold mine in the world, Fosterville Gold Mine in Australia, boasts a head grade of around 28 grams per tonne (g/t), with a peak of 40 g/t before COVID hit.
Comparatively, based on an ore weight of 31 million tonnes and a refined weight of 320,158 tonnes, this gold discovery in Uganda would boast an average head grade of over 10,000 g/t.
"Thirty-one-million tonnes of ore with an average gold grade over 10,000 g/t… no," explains Burgess. "At that grade, there would be visible gold absolutely everywhere. Gold would be spilling out of the rock. You wouldn’t be able to walk without stepping on gold."
He believes that there has likely been a reporting error here - whether intentional or not remains unclear - where the refined total has been identified in tonnes instead of ounces, which would make far more sense.
If it was 320,158 ounces of refined gold this would work out at around 0.32 g/t, which lines up with the average gold mine head grade of between 1 g/t and 4 g/t.