China's Ministry of Natural Resources announced on Tuesday that an exploration campaign in Xuancheng, Anhui Province, identified a large copper and gold ore body at the Chating deposit. ^[1] The deposit is estimated to contain copper resources equivalent to several 500,000-ton copper mines and gold resources exceeding ten 20-ton gold mines, according to China's Ministry of Natural Resources. ^[2] Lin Bin, a deputy laboratory director at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, stated that the Chating deposit is currently the largest identified porphyry copper-gold deposit in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. ^[3] The exploration campaign completed more than 70 drilling operations over a four-month period this year to map the Shangchang village ore body within the Chating mining area. ^[4] The identified main ore body measures approximately 1.2 kilometers long and 1.1 kilometers wide, with mineralization in a single drill hole exceeding 1,370 meters in thickness. ^[5] China's Ministry of Natural Resources said the deposit is the largest of its kind in the Yangtze middle-lower region. ^[6] Lin Bin, deputy director of the Deep Earth Prediction and Evaluation Laboratory at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, said on 2026-07-01 that the discovery in the Yangtze Delta offers geographic and infrastructure advantages and can contribute to new energy and high-end manufacturing. ^[7]