Xiling: China's biggest (and deepest) gold project

The Xiling gold deposit in Shandong province China is a recent discovery reported to have gold resources of over 10 million ounces. It is a deep continuation of mineralisation at the Shanshandao mine operated by Shandong Gold Group. The ore body occurs at depth between 1 000 and 2 000m. This will make any development the deepest gold mine in China bringing with it operational challenges and increased mining costs. Our analysis of deep gold mining in South Africa suggests that mining costs at Xiling will be more than double that at the shallower Sanshandao mine.