A large gold mine was discovered in Qaidam, Qinghai, which could create potential economic value of more than 20 billion yuan.

"Since 2021, we have made major breakthrough in prospecting in Tanjianshan and Wulonggou gold deposits on the north and south margin of Qaidam in Qinghai Province, with 43.2 tons of new gold resources and creating potential economic value of more than 20 billion yuan." On April 7, Wang Bin, head of the deep resource prediction research project of large and super-large gold deposits in the northern and southern margin of Qaidam, Qinghai Province, said in an interview with a reporter from Chinanews. com.

▲ The picture shows that the deep resource prediction research project team of the large and super-large gold deposit in the northern and southern margin of Qaidam in Qinghai Province is conducting field surveys. Photo by Wang Bin

Known as China's "treasure basin", the Qaidam Basin is located in the Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province, with an area of 256,500 square kilometers. It is one of China's important energy and mineral resource-rich areas. Among them, the Tanjianshan gold deposit located on the northern edge of the Qaidam Basin and the Wulonggou gold deposit on the southern edge of the Qaidam Basin are the most representative large and superlarge gold deposits in Qinghai Province, and are also demonstration mines integrating "scientific research-exploration-development" in Qinghai Province.

It is reported that the multi-stage characteristics of large-scale gold mineralization on the northern and southern margin of the Qaidam Basin and the multi-stage and multi-stage structural and magmatic hydrothermal activities in the region have led to insufficient understanding of gold metallogenic laws and ore-controlling factors in the study area. In addition, the low level of deep positioning and prediction research on gold deposits in the study area and single technical means restrict the rapid evaluation and prospecting breakthroughs in deep gold deposits.

▲ The picture shows that the deep resource prediction research project team of the large and super-large gold deposit in the northern and southern margin of Qaidam in Qinghai Province is conducting field surveys. Photo by Wang Bin

Wang Bin said that the achievement of this research project is that Qinghai Province first discovered the second metallogenic enrichment space in the deep part of large-scale gold deposits, indicating that the large-scale super-large gold deposits in the north and south margin of Qaidam in Qinghai Province have the potential to form Shandong "Jiaojia type" world-class gold deposits, and can also be directly used for development and utilization of mining enterprises, ensuring normal production of mining enterprises and driving employment of local people.

According to the "Chronicles of Mineral Geology of China·Qinghai Volume·Popularized Edition", as of the end of 2017, Qinghai Province had identified 481.66 tons of gold resource reserves and 347.17 tons of retained resources. So far, 346 gold ore producing areas have been discovered in Qinghai Province. The largest gold mine is the Dachang Gold Mine in Qumalai County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, with gold resources of 108.63 tons.