The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Hutti Gold Mines sets itself ambitious target

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Saturday, Jan 09, 2010
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Hutti Gold Mines sets itself ambitious target

Special Correspondent

Rs. 352.11 crore to be spent on expansion
Rs. 204 crore set aside for setting up a new shaft

Bangalore: With prices of the yellow metal skyrocketing, the State-owned Hutti Gold Mines Company Ltd. (HGML), the only gold extraction company in the country, had set a target of producing 2,578 kg gold in 2009-10, with an average 4.11 gram of gold per tonne of ore. The company produced 2,420.33 kg gold in 2008-09.

It has decided to invest Rs. 352.11 crore in the next five years on various expansion plans.

The company is planning to enter joint ventures with National Mineral Development Corporation, Indo-Australian Company, Australian firm Cluff, and Deccan Mines to commence mining in Davangere, Tumkur, Gulbarga, Chitradurga Shimoga and Dharwad districts where gold minerals are found.

The company, which is producing 7 to 8 kg of gold daily, has set a target to earn net profit of Rs. 98.21 crore this fiscal year against Rs. 93.05 crore in 2008-09. The company’s turnover in 2009-10 is expected to reach Rs. 319.78 crore against Rs. 316.02 crore in the previous year.

Minister for Excise M.P. Renukacharya, who is the Chairman of the HGML, told presspersons here that the company had been extracting 4.11 gram of gold per tonne of ore against an average recovery of 4.24 gram a tonne of ore in 2008-09.

The company, which has 3,933 employees, invests Rs. 352.11 crore in the next five years at its plant at Hutti in Raichur district. It has decided to invest Rs. 68.22 crore on new snag ball mill which is scheduled to complete in January end.

The existing capacity of the ore milling unit is expected to be expanded to 2,000 tonnes a day when the ongoing work on the new milling plant (snag ball mill) would be completed. As of now, about 90 per cent of the building work on the plant and the assembling of the milling plant had been completed.

Apart from the reopening of the defunct gray shaft at the south end of the mining area (Rs. 16.32 crore), the company had proposed to computerise the existing mechanical system for controlling the whole operation of mining and milling units at an estimated cost of Rs. 2.77 crore.

The HGML has set a target of extracting gold ore from a depth of 28,000 feet by the end of 2012. It proposed to take up underground mining activity at Ooti and Hira-Buddinni areas once the open cast mining comes to an end. Officials said Rs. 204 crore would be invested on setting up a new shaft at Hutti and the tender process had commenced.

A sum of Rs. 14.85 crore would be spent on Ooti Gold Unit (open pit mine) development, Rs. 25 crore on ore milling unit. The company had set aside Rs. 12.09 crore to take up gold mining in Chitradurga, Davangere and Shimoga districts where the preliminary survey work had been completed.

It had launched a programme to expand the wind power plant at Chitradurga at an estimated cost of Rs. 8.86 crore. Of the 18 MW planned, a plant with a capacity of 9.3 MW had been functioning.

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