Factcheck this

World largest gold deposit found in China

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in General Factchecking by Novice (630 points)
Is it really true that world largest deposit of gold was found in China?
https://www.foxnews.com/world/largest-gold-deposit-world-worth-83-billion-found-china

5 Answers

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by Apprentice (1.2k points)

Upon some simple fact checking, very few sources have reported on this subject. This linked article is the main one that comes up, however, there are some other articles stating the same thing from websites like ScienceAlert and Live Science. All the other sources that come up regarding gold deposit found in China is dated or only somewhat related to the sheer amount of gold that was found. However, this lack of sources doesn't necessarily make this claim false. I think that this news just isn't as popular, and reporters/news companies have been focusing their efforts on other stories. For the time being, there are a few articles regarding this subject but they all state the same information including how much the gold is worth, when it was found, and how. If information comes out proving that this claim was false, I wouldn't be surprised, so for now I think it's best to stay updated on this subject and hopefully more sources will report on it. 

True
by Novice (600 points)
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The evidence you presented is excellent. You used reputable sources, and it shows you did your due diligence with this fact check. I enjoy how you didn't flat-out say it is true or false because it is something that is under investigation. It can't be true or false yet.
by Novice (600 points)
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I like how you pointed out that there is not much information about this claim and therefor was harder to fact check. Were the articles dated by a couple years? Or fairly recent? And when you refrents the "sheer amount of golf" are you refering to there being more or less gold then the post alluded too?
by Newbie (260 points)
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This was super helpful in understanding the lack of information. I wonder how old the articles were that were published? I also appreciate how you point out that the lack of sources does not make it false.
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by Newbie (450 points)

This is true according to Chinese local government websites. On this post posted on the Hunan Provice People's Government Website and this post posted on the Geological Bureau of Hunan Province Website, I see all the figures and locations mentioned on the Fox News "600 billion yuan", "Pingjiang County", "Wangu Goldfield", "40 gold ore veins", "300.2 tons of gold resources".

The information and claims on the two posts are identical with the Fox news article, so this is true.

Hunan government post: https://www.hunan.gov.cn/hnszf/hnyw/szdt/202411/t20241122_33508053.html

Hunan Geological bureau post: http://hnsdzy.hunan.gov.cn/dzy/c100643/dzyw/202411/t20241122_33508546.html

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1 like 0 dislike
by Novice (650 points)
edited by

The claim that the world's largest gold deposit was just found in China is unequivocally true. Fox News, which is the source provided in the original claim, says that the deposit is worth $83 billion. “News week”, “ScienceAlert”, “Daily mail”, and the “Economic times” all back up this same claim. The only source I found saying differently about this is “Marksman daily” claiming the deposit was worth 600 billion. With this assortment of sources it's fair to say that the claim is true.

https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/supergiant-gold-deposit-discovered-in-china-is-one-of-the-largest-on-earth-and-is-worth-more-than-usd80-billion

https://nypost.com/2024/11/30/world-news/china-claims-to-have-unearthed-the-largest-gold-deposit-in-the-world-worth-83b/

True
by Apprentice (1.0k points)
0 0
I appreciate how you pointed out that many other sources are backing up the claim. The one source that says such a different number is weird, but since it is the only claim it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. I would say just make sure to include the links to your other sources.
0 like 0 dislike
ago by Novice (920 points)

Summary of Findings

Fox News reports that the world's largest deposit of gold worth $83 billion was found in China, citing Xinhua News as their source. Xinhua news, the state-owned official news outlet of the People's Republic of China, reported that the Hunan Academy of Geology "found more than 40 gold ore veins at a depth of more than 2,000 meters in Pingjiang county, with a total of 300.2 tons of gold resources discovered in the core exploration area and a highest grade of 138 grams per metric ton" (Reuters). Other news outlets reporting on the gold discovery include Reuters, the New York Post, and Newsweek. Each news outlet seems to cite Xinhua News as their source. The New York Post and Newsweek are not typically considered reliable news sources, but Reuters is considered generally reliable and unbiased. Xinhua News, however, has been accused of circulating pro-CCP propaganda and receives a large portion of its funding from the Chinese government (Sage Publishing). There is currently no information refuting the claim that the deposit found in China is the largest in the world, however there seem to be few unbiased reliable sources reporting on the news. Given the available information, this claim is likely true.

Sources and Evidence

https://www.foxnews.com/world/largest-gold-deposit-world-worth-83-billion-found-china

Source of headline; Fox News is a right-leaning news organization whose reliability is highly debated, although the news organization has been criticized for spreading misinformation or exaggerated stories in the past.

https://sk.sagepub.com/ency/edvol/the-sage-encyclopedia-of-mass-media-and-society/chpt/xinhua-news-agency

Sage publishing is a well-respected resource for academic works and peer-reviewed research.

https://nypost.com/2024/11/30/world-news/china-claims-to-have-unearthed-the-largest-gold-deposit-in-the-world-worth-83b/

The New York Post is often criticized for reporting exaggerated and misleading stories, and is not considered a consistent source of reliable news. They were cited in the Fox News article, and seem to report similar information based on the original Xinhua News story.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-finds-83-billion-worth-gold-reserves-hunan-2024-11-21/

Reuters is considered a reliable source of unbiased news, and is often cited for breaking news on economics and politics. Reuters was referenced by Fox News, and also appears to cite Xinhua News as their original source of information regarding the gold discovery.

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ago by Newbie (300 points)

This article is true the findings in China were real by checking other sources it was just a little hard to find other sources because it wasn't that big of a story and media outlets were focused on other stories, but it is a true article and the Chinese Gold source out beat its past record being in Africa so this is something big for the world of gold being how much of it was found.

Other sources I found:

True

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