Rejecting district officials claim that over 3,000 tonne of gold deposits have been discovered in Uttar Pradesh's Sonbhadra, the Geological Survey of India on Saturday said the estimated quantity of gold is only 160 kg.

The GSI rejected the claim made by the Uttar Pradesh Directorate of Geology and Mining (DGM) and said it was not a party to the information published by various media houses.

While PTI had reported the discovery of around 3,000-tonne gold deposit, some reports had said the figure was 3350 tonne.

Rejecting any such discovery, the GSI said it has not estimated such kind of vast resource of gold deposits in Sonbhadra district.

The agency said it carried out several explorations works for gold in the region and but the results were not encouraging to come up with major resources.

This exploration was carried out in the Field Season 1998-99 1999-2000 and the report has been handed over to the DGM UP for information and further necessary action, it said.

"In the report, GSI has estimated a probable category resource of 52,806.25 tonnes of ore with 3.03 grams per tonne gold (average grade) for a strike length of 17m in Sub-Block-H, Sonapahari area, Sonbhadra district," it said.

"The mineralized zone having an average grade of 3.03 grams per tonne of gold is tentative in nature and the total gold which can be extracted. from the total resource of 52,806.25 tonnes of ore is approximately 160 kg and not 3,350 tonnes as mentioned in the media," the GSI added.

Earlier, Sonbhadra district mining officer KK Rai claimed that gold deposits of were 3,300 tonne were discovered in the Son Pahadi and Hardi areas. The deposits in Son Pahadi are estimated to be around 2,943.26 tonnes, while that at Hardi block are around 646.16 kilogram, the official claimed.

Other than gold, a few minerals have also been discovered in the area, Rai added.

The official also informed that the GSI started working on finding gold reserves in the area almost 30 years back in 1992-1993. He added that these blocks will soon be auctioned through e-tendering.

If true, the discovery would be almost five times that of India's current gold reserves of 626 tonnes. In value, it would worth nearly Rs 12 lakh crore.

The claim made by the official was hailed by many on social media including ministers of the BJP governments in UP and the Centre.