Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra Has 160 Kg In Gold Deposits, Not 3,000 Tonnes: Geological Survey Of India

“Such data was not given by anybody from GSI....”, M Sridhar, director general at Geological Survey of India, says.

PTI
An underground loader hauls rocks inside a gold mine. (Photographer: Nicolo Filippo Rosso/Bloomberg)

The Geological Survey of India has rejected claims of about 3,000 tonnes of gold deposits in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district, saying the estimated reserve is 160 kg.

Sonbhadra district mining officer KK Rai had on Friday said that gold deposits were found in Son Pahadi and Hardi areas of the district. The deposits in Son Pahadi are estimated at 2,943.26 tonnes, while that at Hardi are around 646.16 kg, Rai had said.

M Sridhar, director general at Geological Survey of India, rejected the claim.

"The mineralised zone having an average grade of 3.03 grams per tonne of gold is tentative in nature and the total gold which can be extracted from the total resource of 52,806.25 tonnes of ore is approximately 160 kg and not 3,350 tonnes as mentioned in the media,” Sridhar told Press Trust of India in Kolkata on Saturday.

On the claim by the district official, he said, "Such data was not given by anybody from GSI... GSI has not estimated such kind of vast resource of gold deposits in Sonbhadra district.

"We share our findings regarding any resources of ore after conducting survey with state units... We (GSI, Northern Region) had carried out work in that region in 1998-99 and 1999-2000. The report was shared with UP DGM for information and further necessary action," he said.

Sridhar said that in its report after exploration in the district "the GSI has estimated a probable category resource of 52,806.25 tonnes of ore with 3.03 grams per tonne gold (average grade) for a strike length of 170m in Sub- Block-H, Son Pahadi of Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh".

The Geological Survey of India is headquartered in Kolkata.

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