Hyderabad: India’s first private gold mine is expected to take off in the last quarter of 2021 if land acquisition for it is completed in the next six months at Jonnagiri in Kurnool district , Andhra Pradesh . After negotiating with farmers and completing exploratory mining, Geomysore Services India Pvt Ltd is in the process of acquiring the land.

Geomysore has acquired mining lease for 1,500 acres in Jonnagiri. “We have started the land acquisition process for 350 acres. We are hoping to complete it in the next six months. Once the land acquisition is completed, we will take 10 more months to set up the processing plant. Then we will start production. We have agreed to pay Rs 10 lakh plus Rs 2 lakh for each acre to the farmers, whereas the government value is Rs 1.5 lakh. Farmers are responding positively to the move,” said Jade Devenish, managing director at Geomysore Services India Pvt Ltd. The process of negotiation took eight months. So far, the company has invested Rs 160 crore into the exploration and is expecting investments of Rs 300 crore more.

Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) had earlier stopped the automatic renewal of Consent for Operation (CFO) based on a complaint. However, the CFO was recently granted to the company after an independent enquiry. Hanuman Prasad, a senior functionary of Geo Mysore, told TOI, “APPCB stopped auto-renewal based on a complaint. But after they have made an independent enquiry and found that there were no irregularities, they have renewed the CFO. One of the allegations in the complaint was that there were archaeological and heritage sites. But as per rules mining is allowed 300 metres away from the sites. Our mine is located three to four kilometres away from the archaeological sites.”

Prasad added, “As per the package being given to the farmers, for the first 350 acres, Rs 10 lakh will be paid upfront and Rs 2 lakh will be paid in first year of production as bonus. For the remaining 1,150 acres, we are going to pay a lease amount of Rs 16,000 per acre where farmers can grow crops. They must allow us to carry out exploration work if needed.”

Prasad added that there were a total of four blocks and initial mining will be done only in one. “Initially, Geological Survey of India (GSI) estimated 2.4 grams of gold per ton of ore, but those bores are not deep. We have done extensive studies and dug many bore wells and found it to be 1.68 grams per ton,” he said.

