Gold Mine
| Location: | Kolar district in Karnataka, near Bangalore. |
| Open: | not yet |
| Fee: | |
| Classification: |
Gold Mine
|
| Light: | electric. |
| Dimension: | |
| Guided tours: | |
| Bibliography: | |
| Address: | Kolar Gold Fields, Tel: +91-, Fax: +91-, |
| Last update: | $Date: 2008/07/01 20:25:18 $ |
| ~100 | first mining activities. | |
| ~900 | mining intensified during the Chola period. | |
| 1850s | large-scale mining under the British. | |
| 1873 | exclusive privilege of mining in the Kolar district granted to M.F. Lavelle by the Mysore Government. | |
| 1875 | first shaft near Urigam. | |
| 1956 | Indian government takes control. | |
| 1965 | first cosmic ray neutrino interaction recorded in an underground laboratory in KGF mines. | |
| 2001 | Bharat Gold Mines closed. | |
| 2003 | mines closed. |
The eastern Dharwar Craton of southern India includes at least three schist belts. One of them is the Kolar Shist Belt. They are 2.7Ga old, and have been alterated by mesothermal, quartz-carbonate vein gold mineralization. The host rocks are amphibolites and the ore veins are flanked by only a thin zone of biotitic alteration.
Kolar Shist Belt is the southernmost belt, trending north-south. It consists predominantly of tholeiitic amphibolites, in minor amounts komatiitic amphibolites (BIF), graphitic schists and felsic schists (Champion Gneiss). The gold-quartz vein mineralization is most intense in the central zone, along a tectonic contact zone between two suites of metavolcanics. The Kolar schist belt is a late Archean suture (~2.5Ga).
Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) was one of the major gold mines in India and was considered the world's second deepest gold mine. After almost 2,000 years of gold mining, and three centuries of great importance, the mines were closed a few years ago. This resulted in massive unemployment as hundred thousands of miners worked for the gold mine. Many people moved away and Kolar has lost a lot of inhabitants. Now the government of Karnataka plans to open the first show mine of India here, to create a new income for at least some of the former miners. The idea is to attract both international tourism and inland tourism from the nearby Indian IT capital Bangalore, which is only 100km away.
Kolar is located on a plateau called Deccan. This plateau is about 1,000m above sea level and thus has a rather moderated climate, a reason why it was very popular among British civilians. One settlement was once known as Chhota England, or Little England. This time ended in 1956 whene the Indian government took control.
The Kolar Gold Fields produced 800 tons over the last 100 years. 200,000 people lived in the area, and all of theme were directly or indirectly dependend on the mines. Champion Reef Mine was recognised as one of the deepest mines in the world, 3.2km below the surface. The decline came with the closure of Bharat Gold Mines in 2001. Until 2003 all mines in the area were closed and at least half of the inhabitants moved away in the first year.
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