5 Biggest Precious Material Deposits Ever Found

The Earth's crust is packed with vital resources, materials we use for buildings, cars, computers, and let's not forget lovely jewelry, as well. From black gold to real gold, the precious materials deposited beneath our feet have birthed and crashed economies and started countless wars, and the matter of locating the largest deposits (and more importantly, who owns them) is enough to change the course of history.

Determining the largest deposit of any particular precious material is a tricky business. It is impossible to see into every single inch of the Earth's crust, so instead, geologists survey land by measuring Earth's gravitational and magnetic fields. They also send seismic waves and electrical currents into the ground to see how they interact with the rock. All of this gives surveyors important clues as to what lies beneath the surface, but it is also imprecise by nature, meaning it's impossible to say exactly how large a given deposit is.

As time passes and technologies progress, the list of Earth's largest precious material deposits has changed. Some of the deposits on this list were only quantified in recent times, and they could eventually be beaten out by future record-breaking discoveries. That said, here are the largest currently known deposits of five essential materials.

The world's largest deposit of iron ore can be found in Western Australia, in a geological formation known as the Pilbara Craton. A craton is a region of the Earth's lithosphere (different than the crust) that is stable, which is to say it has experienced little to no tectonic activity for a long period of time. How long? Well, the Pilbara Craton is thought to contain some of the oldest rocks on the planet. At up to 3.6 billion years in age, they date back to the Archean Eon, which was when the first lifeforms ever known came into being.

There is thought to be roughly 55 billion tons of iron ore embedded throughout this area. Geologists believe that this unusually large deposit resulted from the breakup of Earth's first-ever supercontinent, Columbia (also known as Nuna), which existed between 1.7 and 1.45 billion years ago. When Columbia broke apart, powerful tectonic forces pushed fluid from deep within the Earth's crust up towards the surface, creating the vast iron deposit that now runs throughout the craton.

The Pilbara iron ore deposit could be worth as much as $5.775 trillion. It's the reason that Australia is the world's leader in iron production, with 98% of that coming from Western Australia. Iron is the most widely used metal in human industry, and the process of turning iron into steel was one of the biggest drivers in the industrial revolution. Much of the world as we know it today was literally built using iron from this deposit.

The McDermitt Caldera straddles the border between Oregon and Nevada, and it holds what is thought to be the world's largest deposit of lithium. Within the caldera's 616-square-mile clay bed, there is an estimated 20 to 40 million metric tons of lithium. What's more, the ore is of very high quality. Most claystone lithium deposits only yield about half a percent of lithium by weight, whereas the claystone from the McDermitt Caldera has been found to contain as much as 2.4% lithium by weight.

A caldera is the collapsed remnant of a volcano left after a powerful eruption. The McDermitt Caldera is just one in a chain known as the Yellowstone hotspot that stretches from northern Nevada to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. It resulted from a volcanic eruption that took place around 16 million years ago, causing an upwelling of lithium-rich magma, which formed the massive deposit.

Lithium may not sound as glamorous as silver or gold, but in the modern world, it is more essential than either. Lithium is used to make two varieties of batteries: lithium and lithium ion batteries, both of which are prized for their high energy output. The production and trade of lithium batteries has taken a central role in global trade in the 2020s with the rise of electric vehicles, and the value of lithium is projected to more than double over the next decade, meaning the McDermitt Caldera should be seeing a lot more action in the near future.

The Bushveld Igneous Complex is one of the most remarkable geological sites on the planet, and not just because it holds more platinum than any other site by far. Located in South Africa, not far from the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg, the Bushveld Complex represents the largest igneous intrusion on the planet. An intrusion is a body of igneous rock that has layers like those seen in sedimentary rock formation, the result of magma cooling as it surges to the surface. Intrusions are known for harboring rich mineral deposits, and the Bushveld Complex is the richest of the rich.

The massive complex, which stretches over 26,000 square miles, holds more than 70% of all the platinum known to exist on Earth. South Africa dominates the global platinum trade, supplying the metal for a variety of industries. Platinum is widely used in making jewelry and electronics, but roughly half the global supply is actually used in the automotive industry. Platinum is widely used to make catalytic converters for cars, along with another metal, palladium. Believe it or not, the Bushveld Complex is also the world's biggest palladium deposit, containing around 50% of global palladium reserves, making this site a double leader in precious materials.

Saudi Arabia is only the world's second-leading producer of oil, beaten out for first place by the United States. However, Saudi Arabia is home to the largest single oil field, the Ghawar Oil Field, located in the eastern part of the country between the Rubayda and Jafurah deserts. Covering roughly 1,700 square miles, the field has been in operation since 1948. More than half of the oil produced in Saudi Arabia since the 1940s has come from the Ghawar Oil Field, although now that its reserves have dwindled considerably, it currently accounts for about a third of the country's oil reserves. It is a vital cornerstone of the Saudi economy, with oil accounting for more than 90% of the nation's revenue.

The Middle East is particularly rich with oil reserves due to its unique geological history. 100 million years ago, the region that is now Saudi Arabia was covered by an ocean rich with life. Over millennia, dead organisms accumulated on the seabed, eventually breaking down into oil. Finally, tectonic forces thrust the land upward, creating the Middle Eastern deserts packed with oil deposits.

At the peak of its production in 1981, the Ghawar oil field produced 5.7 million barrels of oil per day. However, this rate has now gone down to an average of 3.8 million barrels per day. Estimates project that there is still enough oil in the field to continue operating at this capacity until 2050, but whether those estimates prove accurate remains to be seen.

As of the writing of this article, the world's largest gold deposit is somewhat of a controversial matter. The Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa, located not far from the Bushveld Igneous Complex, has long been held as the richest source of gold on Earth, being home to the South Deep gold mine, the world's largest gold mine by reserves. It was once thought to hold up to 40% of the world's gold supply, but that might be wrong. In late 2024, a team of geologists from China sent shock waves through the mining world when they announced the discovery of a massive gold deposit that could contain as much as 1,100 tons of gold, nearly 100 tons more than the South Deep mine reserves.

This massive gold deposit, named the Wangu Goldfield, was found in Hunan Province with the use of 3D modeling, which revealed veins of gold stretching as deep as 9,800 feet below the surface. The entire deposit is estimated at a value of $83 billion, and its economic implications are massive. At present, China leads the world in gold production, but it also leads the world in gold imports because the country uses so much gold. If the Wangu Goldfield proves as prosperous as models have predicted, it would greatly reduce China's reliance on gold from other countries, and potentially position it as a powerful exporter of the precious metal.