Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh is literally a gold mine! The state has a huge potential for gold mining and is the only state in India where two exclusive gold mines are being set up by an Australian-Indian organisation.

There are known deposits of gold bearing quartz rocks in the Rayalaseema region of AP, including Anantapur, Chittoor and Kurnool, as per experts. Last year at the Partnership Summit in AP, the state government had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Australian Indian Resources Ltd to commence mining at Kurnool. With the project already on track, the state has inked another MoU with the same firm for mining gold and processing it at Chittoor district.

M Hanuma Prasad, CEO of Australian Indian Resources Ltd, said, “Each Kurnool and Chittoor mining projects are worth Rs 300 crore investment. Both mining units and processing plants would be set up there by Geomysore Services India Private Limited. At Kurnool’s Jonnagiri Gold Project, a detailed feasibility study by experts is going on. From August this year, construction of the processing plant will commence while from the last quarter of 2018, commercial production of gold would start.”

“As for the Chittoor project, gold resources can be extracted from mineable granite and quartz rocks that occur in combination in Kuppam mandal. Geomysore is pursuing mining lease clearances. Besides, these two places, Anantapur too shows promise while gold mining is concerned,” added Prasad.

In the 1980s, all the three countries — India, China and Australia — used to produce around five tonnes of gold annually. Today, India’s production has dropped to two-three tonnes per year while Australia and China produce around 250 and 400 tonnes of gold, respectively, per year, chiefly due to leasing out gold extraction and production to private companies in these two countries, said Prasad.