India could be headed for a gold mining boom, with Australian Indian Resources (AIR) Pty Ltd seeing the possibility of mining about 300-400 tonnes of gold. At present, India mines about two tonnes of gold a year.
The company is currently focusing on the North Kolar Tenement and the South Hutti belt in the states of Karnataka, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.
While the Geological Survey of India had already identified gold mining zones that have the potential of producing hundreds of tonnes of gold, the sheer expense of mining for gold whose recovery rates are low proved prohibitive.
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However, AIR has mined gold deposits in west Australia under similar geological conditions and has the technology to extract ore at low recovery rates.
It is taking a plunge into mining the proven gold deposits in nine Indian states. Charles Devenish, chairman of AIR, said: