Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: The UP government has struck gold in the literal sense. Officials have confirmed the presence of gold mines in Padrakh, Mahuli and Hardi villages under Kon police station in Son Pahadi region of the tribal-dominated Sonbhadra district.

After confirming the presence of over 3000 tons of gold reserves, worth Rs 12 lakh crore in the mountainous range, the Uttar Pradesh government is preparing for the auction of the rock faces containing gold through e-tendering and has also constituted a seven-member team for the purpose.

The rock which is supposed to have the gold mines is spread over an area of 108 hectare. Besides, there is a possibility of the presence of many other minerals.

A team will be geo-tagging the entire region and will submit its report to the Directorate of Geology and Mining, Lucknow, by February 22.

The estimated gold reserve is said to be over 3,000 ton – 2943.6 ton in Son Pahadi and 646.16 ton in Hardi village area.

UPDATE | Just 160 kg of gold in Sonbhadra, says Geological Survey of India

As per an estimation of World Gold Council, India currently has 626 ton of gold reserves.

The nine-member team of officials, led by mining officer-in-charge of the district, Vijay Kumar Maurya held discussions with forest and revenue officials for demarcation of the area where the gold mine has been spotted.

“Demarcation will be followed by e-tendering of mining contracts,” said an official. The work to trace gold reserves in Sonbhadra started in 1992-93 under GSI though it were the British who first initiated the process.