Two sites with gold deposits found in Sonbhadra
VARANASI : Uttar Pradesh has struck gold, literally.
“Two sites — Son Pahadi (hill) and a forest near Hardi village— with estimated gold deposits of over 3,600 metric tonnes (MT) have been found in Sonbhadra district by a team each of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and the Department of Geology and Mining, UP, respectively,” said KK Rai, district mining officer, Sonbhadra, on Thursday.
While the site at Son Pahadi in Windhamganj area of Sonbhadra has an estimated 2946 MT of gold, the other in the hilly areas of Hardi village has gold deposit of 650 MT, according to Rai.
“The GSI team, which has been working on Son Pahadi
› While the site at Son Pahadi in Windhamganj area of Sonbhadra has an estimated 2946 MT of gold, the other in the hilly areas of Hardi village has gold deposit of 650 MT KK RAI, district mining officer, Sonbhadra
area for over one-and-a-halfdecade, recently stumbled upon the gold deposits. The area is near the Jharkhand border,” said Rai.
Rai said now the exercise to mark the area within the forest land was being done at both the sites.
He said that after proper identification and marking of the forest area, permission will be sought from the department of forest for mining. “After forest department gives permission, the process of bidding for mining will take place as per the rules. Thereafter, the mining at the two sites would be started,” he said. Besides, a 22-member team, constituted by the UP Department of Geology and Mining, was also doing geotagging of both the sites, he said adding, “Once geo-tagging of the sites is done, the report will be submitted to director, Department of Geology and Mining Dr Roshan Jacob. Rai said while Son Pahadi is a hilly area full of forest, the site near Hardi village is in the vicinity of residential area. Known for its natural beauty, Sonbhadra is a mineral-rich district.
Meanwhile, an officer of GSI, who doesn’t wish to be named, confirmed the development, saying that the GSI has found a site with gold reserve at Son Pahadi. He did not mention the other site.
LUCKNOW : Districts in Bundelkhand and Vindhyan (also known as Vindhachal) regions of Uttar Pradesh have virtually turned into a ‘mineral treasure trove’ as geologists and scientists have stumbled upon deposits of several minerals there, officials said.
These deposits included platinum, gold, diamond, andalusite, limestone, granite, barytes ,phosphate, China clay and quartz, they added.
The UP Directorate of Geology and Mining and Geological Survey of India made the find on being tasked with looking for minerals in potential zones after months of exploration, they said.
An officer in Directorate of Geology and Mining said, along with gold in Hardi and Sona Pahadi areas of Sonbhadra, teams explored sillimanite in the Chippiya area, andalusite in Pulwar and Salaidih blocks, iron ore in Bharhari block and glauconite in Patwadih block, all in the same Sonbhadra district in the Vindhyan region.
During preliminary exploration, iron ore deposits were found in the Solda-Uldana area of Lalitpur district in Bundelkhand, the officer added.
Gold deposits were also found in the Berwar area of Lalitpur, the officer said, adding that large deposits of granite were explored in Jhansi and Lalitpur districts.
Geologists found deposits of baryte, the mineral used in the manufacture of ceramic and glass, in the Mathra-Dang area of Lalitpur too, he said.
The department also explored phosphate deposits in Sonrai, Tori and Pisanri areas of Lalitpur. The most sought after mineral platinum was found in the twin villages of Pipariya and Dangli in the hilly area of droughtprone Lalitpur district, the officer said. The officer also said the team had found diamond reserves during an earlier exploration in the catchment area of the Baghain river in Banda district of Bundelkhand region. The area is adjacent to the diamond rich area of Panna and Satna districts of Madhya Pradesh.
Besides, quartz deposits were found in Jhansi and Mahoba districts in addition to limestone in Gurma and Pataudh villages in Sonbhadra district, he said.
The demand for quartz is increasing to cater to the requirement of ferro-silicon, siliconmanganese, silicon-chrome and silicon-refractories. These minerals are directly linked with the iron and steel industry. Limestone deposits will give a boost to cement factories and, in turn, give a thrust to the defence industrial corridor coming up in the Bundelkhand region, the officer said. State government spokesperson and cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh said the mining of minerals will give a boost to revenue and industrialisation in the state. Along with generating employment, it will also pave the way for development of backward regions, he said.