Gold is never found in pure conditions. It occurs with silver, copper, nickel, zinc, lead etc.
It is a precious metal.
It has lured and attracted both the poor and the rich in the world since times immemorial. It is a rare valuable metal. It is lustrous, ductile and pliable.
Its possession is a sign of prosperity. And greed of man to have more and more gold is endless and limitless. It is used for different purposes like ornaments, decoration pieces and gold plating. Gold also finds its place in dentistry and as raw material in the chemical industry.
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Occurrence of gold can be divided as under :
(i) Rock gold
(ii) Alluvial gold
(ii) By-Product gold
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(1) Rock Gold.
It is found in the veins of igneous rocks. It is also called load gold.
(2) Alluvial Gold. It is also called detrital gold. It is found in the alluvial deposits of the rivers.
(3) By-Product Gold. While extracting other metals as mentioned above, it is obtained as a by-product.
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Gold has attraction for human beings on account of its shine, beauty, endurance, etc. It can be melted and converted into various shapes and stretched into wires. Distribution of Gold
About 98% of India’s gold is in the Karnataka state and in small quatities. The states of Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, and Bihar also have insignificant quantity of gold.
Minerals
Karnataka. The mines are Kolar and Hutti (Raichur district). The Kolar mines are spread from the south to the north in metamorphic form in irregular thickness in an area 80 km in length and 3-4 km in breadth.
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Gold is mainly mined in streaks of quartz which are 6 to 9 metres thick. The depth at which gold is now being mined is 3,000 metres. These are one of the deepest mines in the world.
The Hutt gold mines are in the Raichur District. Gold belt is 3700 metres long and 1200 metres wide. Besides these two main gold mines in Karnataka, gold also occurs in Dharwar District. Gold has also been detected in Hassan, Chitradurga, Bellary, Shimoga, Chikmaglur and Gulbarga districts.
Namdidurg, Mysore and Champion are other gold mines in the state. In Andhra Pradesh, gold occurs in Ramagiri, which is a belt of 19 km in Chittoor district. Gold is also there in Anantpur district.
Gold occurs in Bisanattam and Palachchur mines in Chittoor district and Jonnagiri in Kurnool district. Nominal production of gold is in the following states:
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Tamil Nadu: (i) Nilgiri district- Pandapur, Gudapur, Wynnad.
(iii) Coimbatore district- Bensi Betta
(iii) Salem district
Maharashtra : Bhandara district
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Jharkhand: Singhbhum
Alluvial Gold has been recorded in the following Indian states: Assam : The Sabansiri, Lohit, Brahmaputra rivers and other rivers in Lakhanpur and Sibsagar districts.
Kerala :
Chaliyur rivers.
H.P.:
The Satluj rivers.
J.K.:
Indus River.
Orissa:
In a number of streams in the districts of Sundergarh, Gangpur, koraput, Sambalpur, Mayurbhanj.
Karnataka:
Belgaum, Bellary, Shimoga and Chitradurga districts.
Rajasthan:
Udaipur and Khetri Copper Mines.
Bharat Gold Mines Co. Ltd. and Hutti Gold Mines Co. Ltd. and Hindustan Copper Ltd. are engaged in gold mining in India.
To sum up distribution of gold in India, it is as under three gold fields:
2 in Karnataka, 1 in A.E being 3 gold fields in total
1. Kolar gold fields: Kolar district
2. Hutti gold fields: Raichur district
3. Ramagiri gold fields: Anantpur district (A.E)
.Total recoverable gold 177-9 lakh tonnes with 67-9 tonnes of metal.