Muruntau gold mine
One of the largest single gold deposits on Earth, in the Kyzylkum Desert of Uzbekistan: found in 1958 and mined since 1967 from an open pit now about 3.5 km wide and 600 m deep. When the gold formed is argued: about 288 million years ago, or in the Triassic.
Dated events and their evidence
- about 287,500,000 years ago disputed
the main-stage gold forms about 287.5 +/- 1.7 million years ago, by Re-Os dating of arsenopyrite, overlapping nearby granite magmatism; an earlier argon study put the gold-stage sericite in the Triassic, at 245 and 220 million years source - 1958 CE mainstream
the Muruntau gold deposit is discovered source - 1967 CE mainstream
mining begins at Muruntau source - 2021 CE mainstream
the mine produces as much as 3 million ounces (about 85,000 kg) of gold in a year source
Where
41.5000° N, 64.6000° E
The point is the centre given in NASA's caption of its ASTER image of the mine (41.5 N, 64.6 E). Wikipedia gives 65 deg 35' E, roughly 80 km further east; the two disagree and NASA's image shows the pit.
Sources
- https://doi.org/10.1130/G23521A.1
- https://doi.org/10.2113/gsecongeo.96.3.633
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2015.09.005
- https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/muruntau-gold-mine-150159
- https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia25445-muruntau-mine-uzbekistan/
- https://ozgeology.com/blogs/news/the-largest-single-gold-deposit-ever-discovered-muruntau
Each event carries Aion's own evidence grade (mainstream, disputed or speculative). This page repeats what the globe shows for this place.