Massive underwater gold mine found in Pacific ocean
What's the story
A team of Chinese scientists has discovered a massive underwater mineral deposit in the western Pacific ocean, rich in gold and silver. The find was made during a collaborative research expedition involving several Chinese academic institutions. The ores in this seabed hydrothermal field are extremely rich in precious metals, especially silver which can exceed 1kg per ton of ore at its highest grade.
Expedition
A look at the research team
The research expedition was led by Song Shiji, vice-dean of the Institute for Ocean Engineering at Tsinghua University.
He emphasized the high exploitation value of this large seabed mining area.
The team also included researchers from Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
They set sail from Shenzhen on August 10 on Xiang Yang Hong 10, one of China's first self-designed and built giant oceanographic research vessels.
Mineral formation
Precious metals found in large high-temperature hydrothermal field
The precious metals were found in a large, high-temperature hydrothermal field, concentrated in "hydrothermal sulfide" ores.
These multi-metal deposits form when super-hot, metal-rich water jets out of the seabed and meets near-freezing seawater.
The sudden cooling causes metals to bind with sulfur and precipitate as solid sulfide minerals - mostly copper, zinc, and lead but often with some gold and silver too.