The report highlights how India has a rich heritage of gold mining, but the industry’s growth has been hampered by legacy processes and under-investments.
World Gold Council (WGC) on Thursday said that India’s gold mine production was just 1.6 tonne in 2020, when it could reasonably be expected to support annual output of approximately 20 tonne per year in the longer term.
The report highlights how India has a rich heritage of gold mining, but the industry’s growth has been hampered by legacy processes and under-investments. Despite India being one of the world’s largest consumers of gold, the mining market operates on a small scale and is not an easy one to enter.
Somasundaram PR, regional CEO, India, World Gold Council, commented, “Given that India is one of the world’s largest gold consuming countries, it makes sense for it to develop mining capacity. But, change is needed for this to happen, legacy hurdles must be reduced considerably, and investments encouraged. There are promising signs in recent years with the changes to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act and introduction of National Mineral Policy and National Minerals Exploration Policy. If this trend continues India’s, mine production is expected to increase in coming years. That said, we see this materialising only over the longer-term as potential investors will, for the foreseeable future, wait to see how successfully the new policies will be implemented and how effective they will be.”
He added, “Gold mining has the potential to provide significant sustainable socio-economic development for India, not just through investment in exploration of and mining for gold, but also through the legacy of training a skilled workforce. Furthermore, mining helps to bring infrastructure investment to a region, initiating and supporting associated service industries, many of which often persist long beyond the working life of the mine.”
It is only when investors can see real evidence of India managing its gold mining assets more efficiently that we can expect inward investment to emerge. And at that point, the country’s gold mining sector will enjoy a much brighter future.
According to the report, 88% of India’s gold reserves are in the state of Karnataka,a further 12% are situated in Andhra Pradesh and an insignificant amount are found in Jharkhand. Since its restart in 1947, through to 2020, Hutti Gold Mine, located in the Raichur district of Karnataka, has produced some 84 tonne of gold and is currently the only significant gold producer in India.