Officials say that a gold field deposit in Hunan province could yield over 1,000 tonnes of the precious metal.

Valued at approximately 600 billion yuan or US$83 billion, the discovery could be considered the largest and most lucrative reservoir of gold ever uncovered, surpassing the 900 metric tons estimated to lie within the mother of all gold reserves, South Deep mine in South Africa.

China is claiming to have unearthed the largest gold deposit in the world — estimated to be worth more than $80 billion. More than 1,000 tons of gold reserves and ore veins were allegedly discovered by geologists from the Hunan Provincial Geological Institute some 12 miles beneath the surface in China’s Pingjiang County,