Update: Geological Survey of India (GSI) has denied the claim made by a district

mining

official about the existence of

gold

deposits of around 3,000 tonne in

Sonbhadra district

of Uttar Pradesh.

GSI

has said only about 160kg can be extracted from the site. Accordingly, the original story stands updated.

GSI has issued a clarification on reports about gold reserves in Sonbhadra. The total extraction will be approximat… https://t.co/9pfcbOlXXL — Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) 1582392676000

SONBHADRA: Geological Survey of India (GSI) on Saturday denied the claim made by a district mining official about the existence of gold deposits of around 3,000 tonne in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh."The total gold which can be extracted from the total resource of 52806.25 tonnes of ore is approximately 160 kg and not 3,350 tonnes," the GSI said.Earlier, a mining official claimed that Sonbhadra, east UP’s mineral-rich district, could be sitting on a gold reserve of approximately 3,000 tonnes — five times India’s current reserve of 618.2 tonnes — worth over Rs 12 lakh crore.UP’s geology and mining department sent a team to the district for mapping and geo-tagging of the area. There are two big blocks with gold in Sonbhadra. The total estimated reserve of gold in Sona Pahadi block is 2,943 tonnes. The GSI has estimated that another 646 kg gold reserve could be found at Hardi block, an official note issued by state mining director Roshan Jacob had said.According to the World Gold Council’s (WGC) data, the US has the largest gold holding with 8,133.5 tonnes, followed by Germany with 3,366 tonnes and IMF with 2,814 tonnes. Italy (2,451.8 tonnes) and France (2,436 tonnes) make the top five.“After the completion of mapping, we will submit the report to the directorate for further action, like auctioning of gold blocks for mining,” Sonbhadra’s district mining officer KK Rai, who is a member of the team doing the mapping job, told TOI on Friday.It was earlier reported that the GSI team had also found the presence of ores of other metal and minerals, including Andalusite, aluminium nesosilicate mineral (95.02 tonnes) in Pulawar and Salaidih blocks, Potash (9.46 tonnes) in Patwadh block and iron (14.97 tonnes) in Bharhari block. Sillimanite, an aluminosilicate mineral (9.8 tonnes) have also been explored in Chhipiya block of district.The team constituted by UP's geology and mining directorate for mapping and geo-tagging work comprised joint director Jay Prakash , Dr Vijay Kumar Maurya, KK Rai, Ram Pravesh Singh, SN Patel, Daud Ansari and Santosh Kumar Pal. District mining officer Rai had said that the team was working since February 17 and was now about to finish its assigned job.Sonbhadra DM S Rajalingam had said that the GSI and directorate of geology and mining had sought permission for the survey of the area. "The team would submit the report to the directorate for further action," he added.Sonbhadra, which shares boarder with four states, is a picture of dicotomy. While on one hand UP's far east district is also considered power capital of India, with seven plants, on the other it is counted among most backward districts of the country and among 33 UP districts which receives grant under the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGFP). It also has UP's highest tribal population.