Kolar Gold Fields
The Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka lie buried under vast expanses of empty land where scattered bungalows and giant shafts stand like totems to an eventful past.
So deep were the mines from its 100 years of operations that it safely housed Tata Institute Institute of Fundamental Research’s neutrino project 2.5 km below the ground — this too suffered from the mines’ closure.At the turn of the century when the bleeding BGM took a call to shut down business, gold prices hovered around Rs 4100 per 100 gms and mining gold from such depths was no longer viable. Today the residue in the dumps alone, and its claims over other gold deposits http://bit.ly/1ze4Us0 , could make BGM viable again.
After the Supreme Court approved its sale, the GoI in September last year invited a consultant to draft a tender document. And reportedly Vedanta Group’s Anil Agarwal is also interested.
I traveled to Kolar for BusinessWorld four years ago when the Government of Indian was drawing up revival plans. KGF seemed suspended between nostalgia and the promise of new prosperous era.
At 13000 feet the weather was great and with much of its working population in Bangalore, the town quiet. The bungalows were occupied by former employees who pay more a token rent under a severance scheme. They pay more for water. The 1400 km of tunnels of the mines are filled with water which has contaminated the water tables of the area. Reports indicate high traces of sodium, carbonate, bicarbonate and chloride from explosives left behind.
A former geologist said systematic “mines closure” with an environment impact assessment hadn’t taken place, and the mines were abandoned instead. He doubted they could be revived easily. However, the 40 mt of tailings or cyanide dumps winding their way around is another story. Conservative estimates suggest they hold at least 20 tonnes of gold. Another attraction would be BGM’s 12,109 acres of unoccupied land.
CJ Demonte a pastor who once trained miners remembered a time when one could find gold panning just panning the water channels that ran down from the mines. The town had a dedicated power line, one of the country’s earliest golf clubs, a hectic social life. The wonderful Bridget White relives the good times through her Kolar memoirs (and Anglo Indian recipes) http://memoriesofkgf.blogspot.in/.
But life in Little England wasn’t always as romantic. Miners suffering from silicosis, TB and other occupational lung diseases. Accidents, and casualties who found a burial at the cemetery tell many a story, including of young Europeans there during the first world war. Viswanadan, a third generation miner told me, “You went down everyday knowing you could probably die, you came up knowing you were getting paid for the day”.
