Mines minister calls for fresh exploration at Kolar Gold Fields

Narendra Singh Tomar, who held the meeting with senior officials of the ministry of mines, has called for re-evaluation of dumps at KGF

Union mines and steel minister Narendra Singh Tomar has suggested undertaking fresh exploration and evaluation of dumps and mines at Kolar Gold Fields to understand the value and potential of the abandoned gold mines operated by erstwhile Bharat Gold Mines Limited (BGML).

Addressing a meeting of senior mines officials at the Shastri Bhavan in Delhi today, the minister called for bifurcation of issues into administrative and mining. He urged the state exploration agencies to re-evaluate the dumps as well as the mines of BGML, in order to determine the correct value of these mines.

Tomar concluded the meeting by underscoring the need to decide over issues pertaining to BGML at the earliest.

Anup K Pujari,  Secretary, Ministry of Mines, R Sridharan, Additional Secretary (Mines), and senior officials from the Mines Ministry and Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited were present at the meeting.

Previously known as the Kolar Gold Mines, Bharat Gold Mines Limited (BGML) was a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Mines which ran into heavy losses and was eventually shut down in March 2001. A 2006 cabinet decision, later supported by the Apex Court, prescribed the global tender route to ascertain the value of its assets.

The fate of the matter, however, has remained hanging owing to a protracted legal wrangling between stakeholders with conflicting interests.

Straddling between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, BGML used to operate four mining leases before its closure. The biggest gold reserve of BGML, Kolar Gold Field (KGF), lies in Karnataka.

The mining lease of KGF expired in 2013, application for whose renewal was filed on time, and is subject to fulfilment of some conditions. As per rough estimates, even after 120 years of mining, the value of this golden goose runs into a couple of thousand crores.

The meeting deliberated over several options to solve persisting issues in the region.