An estimated 3,000 tonnes of gold reserves have been found in Uttar Pradesh''s Sonbhadra district, the Department of Geology and Mining confirmed on Friday.
According to current prices, the value of this amount of gold could be around Rs 12 lakh crore. Sonbhadra is counted among the most backward districts of the country.
The area of the hill where the gold was found is said to be 108 hectares. An order for its auction has also been issued through e-tendering.
A seven-member team was constituted for geo-tagging of mineral sites, and their report will be submitted to the Department of Mining, Lucknow by February 22.
Sonbhadra District Mining Officer K.K. Rai told that a team of Department of Geology and Mining and Geological Survey of India (GSI) is engaged in this task.
He said that work on the site started after 2005 and the report has just been received. It is estimated to hold about 3,000 tonnes of gold.
The GSI is conducting an aerial survey of the quarry area for which two helicopters have been deployed.
Rai said it is being assessed how much land comes under the revenue department and under the forest department so that the process of permission from the forest department for mining can begin.
The state government has also expedited the process of leasing these mines. For the mining, the process of geo-tagging has been started before the auction process. E-tendering will be done as soon as the demarcation work is completed.
There is also a strong possibility of presence of other precious minerals, including uranium, in the hills of the region.
Geophysical survey is underway by helicopter in many parts of the district. Electromagnetic and spectrometer devices are being used in the survey. Part of these instruments hang under the helicopter which conducts a flying survey at an altitude of 60-80 meters above the ground surface.
The current market price of gold is Rs 41,000 per 10 grams. This means that 1 Kg of gold will cost Rs 41 lakh and 1 ton of it will cost Rs 410 crore. Sonbhadra mines are projected to have 3000 tons of gold. This means that the total cost of gold is more than 12.3 lakh crore.
If 3000 tons of gold in Sonbhadra is added to India's gold reserves, it will make our country's gold reserves next to those of the USA, the country with the biggest gold reserve in the world. Addition of Sonbhadra gold to Indian reserves will boost them to 3633 tons.
USA has 8133 tons of gold while Germany (currently at number 2) has 3366 tons of gold.
3000 tons of Sonbhadra gold would mean that India would not have to import gold for the next 5 years. This would mean that India will be in a position to save foreign currency in its forex reserves. According to the World Gold Council, India imported 646 tons of gold in the year 2019.
ऐसे ही थोड़ी न इस प्रागैतिहासिक भू अंचल को सोनभद्र कहा जाता था!
— मालिनी अवस्थी (@maliniawasthi) February 21, 2020
मैं बार बार कहती हूँ,हमारी भारतीय ज्ञान परंपरा पर शोध होना चाहिए
किंवदंतियों और लोककथाओं लोकगीतों को खारिज करनेवालों,इन्हीं में पुरातन भारत के रहस्य छुपे हैं पुरखों के लंबे अनुसंधान का रहस्य!#Sonbhadra #GoldMines https://t.co/MsTZuw8I7R