BENGALURU: In what is being considered one of the biggest discoveries of gold ore in the past decade in the country, the Karnataka unit of the Geological Survey of India has discovered vast deposits at Ajjanahalli village in Turuvekere taluk of Tumakuru district.
Initial estimates by scientists indicate that 1.206 million tonnes of ore is present at the location, with possibilities of full-fledged mining getting started in the area within the next three to five years. If the activity is taken up, it will become the third gold mine in Karnataka.
Following the announcement made by M Sridhar, Additional Director General, Geological Survey of India, The New Indian Express spoke to several GSI officials, who voiced their excitement with the discovery. The officials, who did not wish to be quoted, said that the gold ore discovered in Ajjanahalli could be mined following a techno-economical assessment of the mine.
“This is clearly one of the largest discoveries of gold ore in more than a decade. Since gold is rarely found in the Indian subcontinent, it is an important find, both in terms of geology and the worth of the ore found,” a scientist said.
Mining can be taken up in the area based on crucial parameters such as the quantity of gold per tonne of ore and proximity to a port, he said, adding that any ore with four to five grams of gold per tonne is considered to be of good quality and feasible for mining.
Another geologist said that GSI has been surveying Ajjanahalli and surrounding areas for over a decade. “There has been an indication of the presence of gold ore, which was pursued by our staff. As a result, the deposit was narrowed down after a few years of geo-chemical surveys in the region,” he said. There aren’t many gold deposits in the country and Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka was the only gold mine for a long period. Discoveries like the one at Ajjanahalli are very rare and took years of surveys, he added.
WHERE DID THE GOLD COME FROM?
According to book, Indica: A deep natural history of the sub-continent, there are scientific theories that trace the origin of gold to meteors and asteroids that crashed on earth during its early phase. Around 2.5 billion years ago, according to some scientists, a large asteroid collided close to Kolar and gold was congealed within the granite in the ground. Over millions of years, these gold particles were eroded and settled in streams and river-beds, says the book.