This claim is true. A major gold deposit was discovered in Pingjiang County, Hunan Province, China, and announced by the Geological Bureau of Hunan Province on November 21, 2024. The deposit was uncovered at the Wangu gold field, where workers detected more than 40 gold veins containing around 300 metric tons of confirmed gold reserves down to a depth of 2,000 meters. Using 3D modeling, experts estimated that total reserves could reach approximately 1,000 metric tons of gold at greater depths, valued at roughly 600 billion yuan (US = $83 billion).
This is the primary source of the claim. The Geological Bureau announced the discovery of over 40 gold veins with a confirmed reserve of 300 tons within 2,000 meters of depth at the Wangu Goldfield in Pingjiang County. According to ore prospecting expert Chen Rulin, out of 55 drilled holes above 1,500 meters, 48 revealed gold, an 87.3% discovery rate.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2024-11-21/Over-1-000-tonnes-Supergiant-gold-deposit-discovered-in-central-China-1yIbyP76QlW/p.html
The World Gold Council (WGC), another primary source, expressed skepticism about the claim, with an analyst calling the scale of the estimate "aspirational" and calling for a more rigorous assessment. The WGC expert drew a comparison to a 2020 incident in India where local officials claimed a 3,000-ton gold find, only for the Geological Survey of India to later debunk it.
https://www.mining.com/chinas-super-giant-gold-discovery-claim-sounds-aspirational-wgc-expert-says/
Potential bias can be seen in CGTN, as it is a Chinese state-run media outlet that serves the political and economic interests of the Chinese government. Moreover, China has clear motivations to publicize large resource discoveries favorably. The Geological Bureau of Hunan Province, which made the announcement, is also a government body reporting its own findings, with no external verification attached to the release. Finally, Fox News, the outlet linked in the original claim, has no geological expertise and simply amplified Chinese state media without performing its own fact check.
Evidence supporting the claim comes from the Geological Bureau of Hunan Province, which confirmed 300 tons of gold down to 2,000 meters in depth, with projections exceeding 1,000 metric tons of gold. However, a big issue is that the 1,000-tonne figure is still just a projection. No peer-reviewed study has been published on this deposit, and all the numbers are coming straight from the Chinese government with no outside verification. Moreover, the World Gold Council was not convinced either, calling the claim "aspirational" and pointing out that only 300 tons have actually been confirmed through drilling, with the rest extrapolated from 3D modeling.