LUCKNOW: The UP government has stricken the gold, this time, in a literal sense. The authorities concerned have confirmed the presence of gold mines in Son Pahadi in Mahuli and Hardi village under Kon police station area of Padrakh village panchayat in the tribal district of Sonbhadra. After the confirmation of the presence of over 3500 tons of gold reserves in the mountainous range, Uttar Pradesh government is preparing for the auction of the rocks containing gold through e-tendering and has also constituted a seven-member team for the purpose.
The team will be geo-tagging the entire region and will submit its report to the Directorate of Geology and Mining, Lucknow, by February 22. As per reports of Geological Survey of India and Uttar Pradesh Directorate of Geology and Mining, the estimated gold is said to be around 3,589. 76 tonnes – 2943.6 tonnes in Son Pahadi and 646.16 tonnes in Hardi village area.
According to authorities, as per estimation of World Gold Council, India currently has 626 tonnes of gold reserves. The new reserves are almost five times that quantity and estimated to be worth Rs 12 lakh crore. The work for finding gold reserves in Sonbhadra started in the year 1992-93 under the aegis of Geological Survey of India. It was reportedly the British who first initiated the process to find gold reserve in Sonbhadra region.
The 9-member team of officials, led by Mining officer-in-charge of the district, Vijay Kumar Maurya reached the block to hold discussions with the forest officials and revenue officials for the demarcation of the block where the gold mine has been spotted. “Demarcation will be followed by e-tendering for awarding mining contracts and them mining will commence,” said an official who was part of the 7-member team.
The rock which is supposed to have the gold mines is spread over an area of 108 hectares. Besides, there is a possibility of the presence of many other minerals in the range. The sources claimed that an aerial survey of the area through a chopper was being conducted for the last 15 days. The aerial survey is being conducted to look for the possible presence of uranium in the area.
