This story is from May 31, 2022

Gold deposits in Bihar's Jamui: Geological Survey of India disowns any claim

At a time when the groundwork is on for a fresh exploration of underground gold deposits in Jamui, the state-owned Geological Survey of India (GSI) has claimed that it has not estimated any resource of gold deposit in the district located in south-east Bihar.
Gold deposits in Bihar's Jamui: Geological Survey of India disowns any claim
Image used for representational purpose only
PATNA: At a time when the groundwork is on for a fresh exploration of underground gold deposits in Jamui, the state-owned Geological Survey of India (GSI) has claimed that it has not estimated any resource of gold deposit in the district located in south-east Bihar.
The GSI’s Delhi- based central headquarters in a statement dated May 30 and posted on its official Twitter handle on Tuesday, said there is no mention of 222.8 million tons of gold reserve including 27.6 tons of mineral-rich ore in any of its reports.


The GSI further stated that it completely disowned and condemned recent reports by a certain section of media in Bihar stating that GSI had made such claims.
TOI also published a report titled “State for fresh exploration of gold reserves in Jamui” in its edition dated May 29. However, the TOI’s report did not attribute such claims about the gold reserve in Jamui to GSI. Officials in GSI’s Patna branch had claimed that the estimate of 222.88 million tonnes of gold reserves in Jamui is as per a report of the Indian Bureau of Mines, which was also reportedly quoted by the Union minister of coal and mines, Pralhad Joshi in the Lok Sabha in December last year.

In fact, the GSI’s statement issued on Tuesday seems odd with what the Union mines minister had informed the parliament.
“As per the National Mineral Inventory, the total resources of primary gold ore in the country as of 1.4.2015 are estimated at 501.83 million tonnes with 654.74 tonnes of gold metal and out of this, Bihar is endowed with 222.885 million tonnes (44 per cent) of ore containing 37.6 tonnes of metal,” Joshi had said in a written reply.
Joshi had further claimed that GSI has carried out a G4 stage ‘reconnaissance survey' for gold in parts of West Champaran district and G3 stage ‘preliminary exploration’ in Gaya district.
“In West Champaran district, G4 stage exploration was carried out for placer gold in foothills of Siwalik Himalayas, but the average concentration of placer gold in this area is low (0.0061ppm to 1.96ppm) and no resource has been estimated,” the Union minister had said.
Incidentally, the GSI acknowledged in its statement on Tuesday that it has been executing exploration works in Jamui since 2016 for iron and has conducted one gold exploration project in 2012-13.
Indian Bureau of Mines in its Indian Minerals Yearbook, 2012 had stated that occurrences of gold have been reported in Jamui district.
The state government had also conducted exploration in Jamui district as a part of a state-wide survey of undivided Bihar for gold deposits from 1982 to 1991.
Additional chief secretary-cum-mines commissioner Harjot Kaur Bamhrah said last week that the state government has got proposals from National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited (MECL) for conducting further exploration for gold deposits at Jamui.
The reason for fresh exploration at Jamui has been attributed to “poor grade” of gold as per the last exploration.
According to sources, the grade of ore at Jamui as per the last survey was 0.17ppm, which means 0.17gram of gold per ton of ore or stone but the minimum standard for carrying out underground mining for gold is 2ppm.
Mines commissioner has said the government has decided to go for further exploration, so as to ascertain the present status, grade and distribution of gold in Jamui district.
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