A new gold mine with at least 80 tons of proven reserves has been found in a mining base in the mountains of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the provincial administration of land and resources said on Wednesday.
 
The new mine, the largest ever found in Shaanxi Province, is located in the Jinlongshan mining area in Zhen'an County, in a remote corner of the fog-shrouded Qinling Mountains.

It has more than 16 million tons of ore, including 2 million tons of oxide ore and at least 14 million tons of primary ore, a spokesman with the administration said.

He said the discovery would beef up China's gold output, which totaled 122.2 tons in the first half of this year.

Earlier this year, China discovered 162 tons of gold reserves in Yangshan Gold Mine in the northwestern Gansu Province and large reserves of more than 50 tons in the same province as well as in the eastern province of Shandong and northeastern province of Heilongjiang, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

(Xinhua News Agency October 4, 2007)