1. The Sanshan Island gold mine is the only seabed mining gold mine in the entire country.

　　The Sanshandao Gold Mine of Shandong Gold Group Co., Ltd. is located on the beautiful shores of Laizhou Bay, a shining gem along the Bohai Bay.

　　Sanshan Island Gold Mine has become the world’s first mine to safely and efficiently extract seabed metal resources. It is the only gold mine in China that conducts mining operations underwater.

　　The Sanshan Island gold mine is a key construction project during the Seventh Five-Year Plan period for China’s gold industry. It is one of the 100 largest nonferrous metal mining and beneficiation enterprises in China, and currently boasts the highest degree of mechanization among underground gold mines nationwide.

　　Moreover, the mining depth on Sanshan Island has already reached 1,050 meters! Currently, China has only 16 metal mines with a mining depth exceeding 1,000 meters!

　　The Sanshandao gold mine employs a combined development approach featuring a main shaft and ramp, along with a mechanized horizontal layer-filling mining method using pillar extraction. The beneficiation process involves two-stage grinding, two-stage separation, seawater-based ore dressing, cyanide leaching for gold recovery, and wet smelting. All equipment used for mining, ore extraction, transportation, hoisting, and exploration has been imported from abroad.

　　2. Sanshan Island boasts enormous gold resource potential.

　　The gold deposit in the Sanshan Island sea area is located on the Jiaodong Peninsula, with an exploration area of 17.91 square kilometers. It lies within China’s premier mineralization belt—the Sanshan Island-Cangshang Fault Mineralization Belt—where numerous large- and medium-sized gold deposits are concentrated. The region boasts exceptional geological conditions favorable for mineralization, offering tremendous potential for further exploration and reserve expansion. This deposit is one of the few ultra-large gold deposits in the world, and it ranks as the largest single mine in China in terms of scale and reserves.

　　The gold deposit discovered over three years by the Third Geological and Mineral Exploration Institute of Shandong Province in 2015, located in the northern waters off Sanshan Island in Laizhou, boasts gold resources totaling over 470 tons (with reserves exceeding 20 tons classified as large-scale gold deposits and those above 50 tons as ultra-large-scale gold deposits). The average gold grade is 4.3 grams per ton. This gold deposit in the northern waters off Sanshan Island in Laizhou represents the nation’s first-ever offshore gold discovery.

　　On March 28, 2017, Shandong Gold Group held a press conference in Beijing to announce the exploration results of the Xiling Gold Mine in the Sanshandao Mining Area. The company revealed that its subsidiary had discovered earlier this year a world-class, giant single gold deposit—the Xiling Gold Mine in the Sanshandao Mining Area—whose potential economic value could exceed 150 billion yuan.

　　The Jiaobei region—specifically the Laizhou-Zhaoyuan area—is China’s most important gold-mining concentration zone and also a nationally designated integrated exploration area. It ranks first in the country in both gold reserves and gold production, making it one of the world’s few exceptionally large gold-rich areas. Here, gold deposits are densely distributed and the ore bodies are enormous in scale. The region is globally renowned for its Linglong-Jiaojia-style gold deposit type and has now become a major gold-production base.

　　“The ore body of this deposit extends over 2,000 meters in strike length, with a local thickness of up to 67 meters in individual ore bodies. Currently, the registered gold metal content stands at 382.58 tons, with an average grade of 4.52 grams per ton. It is expected that upon completion of the two-year exploration phase, the deposit will yield gold resources exceeding 550 tons, making it the largest single gold deposit ever recorded in China’s gold mining history. According to industry standards, deposits containing more than 20 tons are classified as large-scale gold deposits, while those with over 50 tons are considered extra-large. If operated at a production rate of 10,000 tons per day, the deposit could sustain full-capacity production for 40 consecutive years.”

　　3. In the future, China must look to the deep underground for gold.

　　It is understood that in some countries, the depth of gold mine drill holes has already exceeded 4,000 meters, and even 5,000 meters. Among the newly discovered mineral resources in the Yantai area of Shandong Province, approximately 80% represent deep-prospecting achievements, including over 1,300 tons of gold. Currently, the deepest mineral deposits discovered in Yantai reach a depth of 2,000 meters. However, to determine exactly how much gold reserves are buried deep underground, further deep-exploration efforts are still needed.

　　According to international mining data, gold deposits located between 1,000 meters and 5,000 meters underground hold greater economic value. Although China is the world’s largest producer of gold, to date, China’s gold exploration and development have been confined to depths of no more than 1,000 meters—indeed, much of the exploration has focused on the shallow surface layers within 800 meters. As is well known, deep geological conditions are highly complex; not only is it extremely challenging to locate mineral deposits at such depths, but future mining operations will also be significantly more difficult. Consequently, deep exploration and deep mining have become crucial strategic issues for the development of mining enterprises.

　　Shandong Gold Group is actively pursuing a major scientific research project titled “Comprehensive Geological Study and Resource Prediction at Ultra-Deep Levels in the Northwest Shandong Gold Mining District.” In conjunction with this project, the company has launched a 4,000-meter deep scientific drilling operation at the Xiling Village mining area along the Sanshandao Fault Mineralization Belt, completing China’s deepest rock gold exploration borehole to date, reaching a depth of 4,006.17 meters. This breakthrough sets a new record for the deepest small-caliber core drilling in China, pioneering deep exploration efforts for metallic mineral resources in the country and filling a domestic gap in deep gold exploration. It also promotes the development of related ore-forming theories and technologies. Meanwhile, Shandong Gold Group has also achieved significant results in deep-mining research.

　　Abroad, there are 112 mines with depths exceeding 1,000 meters. Among these deep mines, 16 have mining depths surpassing 3,000 meters, 12 of which are located in South Africa and all are gold mines. In China, among the 16 deep mines, 8 are gold mines and 7 are non-ferrous metal mines. The situation both domestically and internationally is broadly similar: among deep mines, gold mines account for the largest number. Deep-level mining represents the most significant challenge facing China’s development of metallic mineral resources, with gold mines being the most severely affected.

　　If current development trends continue, China will soon rank first in the world in terms of the number of deep-shaft mines! Therefore, in the future, the key constraint on China’s mining industry will be deep-shaft mining technology. By overcoming this challenge, we can leapfrog ahead and surpass other countries! This will also provide the technological foundation for the further development and exploitation of Sanshandao in the future!