Deccan Gold Mines says reviewing data on critical minerals in India

Deccan Gold Mines Ltd on Monday said it is evaluating data on critical minerals, including lithium, in the country and may seek exploration licences in case of positive assessment.

The government last year launched the auction of critical minerals, including two lithium blocks.

"As part of our strategy to build a Critical Minerals (CM) portfolio, the company is reviewing data on Nickel, Copper, Graphite and Lithium Projects in India / overseas. The company may secure these licences subject to the positive technical evaluation," the company said in a filing.

Shares of the company surged by 4.99 per cent to Rs 130.55 apiece in pre-close session on BSE following the announcement. The benchmark Sensex was trading 0.52 per cent down.

On its Jonnagiri gold project, the company said 210.6 acre of key land has been already acquired and efforts are underway to acquire another 40 acre by the end of the next month.

As of date, the available land is already sufficient to commence the full-scale production activities, the company said.

Open pit mining in the east block of the Jonnagiri Mining Lease area is under progress, it said, adding that the produced ore is being fed to the mini processing plant and the ore is also being stacked to provide the feed to the full capacity processing plant, which is under construction.

"Over 60 per cent of the plant construction has been successfully accomplished," the filing said.

Deccan Gold Mines Ltd (DGML), the first and the only gold exploration company listed on BSE, has a significant stake of 40 per cent in Geomysore Services India Ltd, which is developing the first private sector gold mine at Jonnagiri, Andhra Pradesh.