Nowadays, a news is spreading like wildfire on social media and WhatsApp – “A treasure of 22 million tons of pure gold has been found under the ground in Iran! Now Iran’s poverty will go away and America will be shocked!” This news is as exciting as it sounds, but it is equally misleading. So has Iran really found the ‘golden bird’? Let’s get to the bottom of the truth of this whole matter and know how much black is there in the lentils. So what has been found in Iran? Iranian officials have admitted that a huge deposit of gold has been found in a mine named Shidan in the country, but it is not ‘pure gold’, but ‘gold ore’. What is the difference between ‘gold ore’ and ‘pure gold’? Understand it in very simple language. Ore: This is a raw rock or stone in which a very small amount of gold is mixed. Imagine, only a few grams of gold comes out of one ton (1000 kg) of stone. Pure Gold: After passing this ore through big machines and difficult chemical processes, the real gold that comes into our hands is called ‘pure gold’. So Iran has found ‘raw rock’ worth 2.2 crore tonnes, not bricks of ‘pure gold’. So is this discovery of no use? No, it is so. Absolutely not! This discovery is very important for Iran. For Iran, which is struggling with international sanctions, it is like a ‘lottery’, from which it can benefit a lot in the coming time. But, there are some ‘buts and buts’ here: Money, Technology and Time: It will take a lot of money, modern technology and many years of time to extract gold from this raw rock. This is not an ‘Aladdin’s lamp’, which as soon as it is rubbed, gold will come out. It is not yet certain how much gold will come out: No one knows yet how much pure gold will actually come out of that 22 million tons of rock. It may be very less. Have America and Arab countries really ‘lost their senses’? This is completely based on fabrication and speculation. Although this is a big discovery, it is not going to have any ‘immediate’ and ‘dramatic’ impact on the world gold market or politics. So what is the truth of the news? The truth is that Iran has found a potential ‘treasure’, but it will take a lot of time, money and effort to dig it, clean it and turn it into real gold. So, the next time you come across such a sensational news, do check its authenticity. Take it.