Geologists have found large amounts of gold and silver in reservoirs inside many of New Zealand's volcanoes.

A deep lake filled with gold and silver inside a volcano in New Zealand. Photo: Jacob Surland/Flickr.

Geologist Stuart Simmons of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA, and colleagues discovered that a molten lava flow warmed water beneath the Taupo volcano in New Zealand. The boiling water flowed into nearby rocks and accumulated dissolved metals such as gold and silver.

While the rocks below the surface contained only trace amounts of gold, scientists found six reservoirs hundreds of meters deep filled with glistening gold and silver. The highest concentration of gold in the water was 0.02 mg/l, and the silver concentration reached more than two mg/l. The findings were published in the journal Geothermics in early July.

The research team estimates that the amount of gold and silver that could be extracted from one of these reservoirs each year is worth up to $6.3 million. However, the extraction process requires the development of new mining technologies so as not to affect the potential to convert heat into electricity./.

According to VnExpress