Day after the Geological Survey of India (GSI) denied that it has found gold deposit estimated to be around 3,000 tonnes in Uttar Pradesh' Sonbhadra district, Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor took a dig at the Narendra Modi-led NDA government and said why is it so obsessed with "tonne-mann-dhan".
Taking to Twitter, Shashi Tharoor said on Sunday, "Why is our government so obsessed with tonne-mann-dhan? First it was the 5 million tonne economy from the HM. Then the 3350-tonne reserve gold from UP which turned out to be merely 160 kgs. The Govt must really tone down the tonne-tana-tonne talk a bit."
160 kg gold in Sonbhadra, not 3350 tonnes: GSI
The GSI has poured cold water on the El Dorado-type scenario in Sonbhadra as it estimates that only 160 kg of gold can be extracted from the deposits and the surveys for gold in the region have not been encouraging. The GSI has clarified on news reports about the availability of 3,350 tonnes of gold in Sonbhadra Pahadi and Hardi field.
Geological Survey of India is not a party to the information published in the news. GSI has not estimated such kind of vast resource of gold deposits in Sonbhadra district, UP", the GSI said categorically in a statement.
Goldrush in Sonbhadra
Sonbhadra, one of 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh, made headlines after media reports said that the GSI and the Uttar Pradesh Directorate of Geology and Mining have discovered a huge swath of gold deposit in the hinterland of Sonbhadra district in Uttar Pradesh.
READ | No discovery of 3000-tonne gold deposits in UP's Sonbhadra: GSI
Sonbhadra district mining officer KK Rai also said that the deposits in Son Pahadi are estimated to be around 2,943.26 tonnes, while that at Hardi block are around 646.16 kilograms.
However, GSI Director General (DG) M Sridhar told news agency PTI in Kolkata on Saturday evening, "The mineralised zone having an average grade of 3.03 grams per tonne of gold is tentative in nature and the total gold which can be extracted from the total resource of 52,806.25 tonnes of ore is approximately 160 kg and not 3,350 tonnes as mentioned in the media".
India's gold reserve is around 626 tonnes. According to the World Gold Council (WGC), India is currently at the 10th spot in the list of nations with the highest gold reserve.
