Vedanta to explore gold mine after rains in Chhattisgarh

The Dollar Business Bureau

Vedanta Ltd. on Wednesday announced it will begin the process of exploration of gold mine after the monsoon. The company was awarded the first-ever auction of a gold mine in India in February this year.

"We were successful with gold auction in Chhattisgarh. The gold reserve that was there at the time of auction was probably small for Vedanta," Tom Albanese, Group Chief Executive Officer of Vedanta Ltd. told PTI.

"But our geologists suggested that may be there will be more (reserve) there. So we have decided to take up more exploration and deep drilling. We are hoping as we come out of the wet season we start some deep drilling," Albanese added.

In February this year, this global diversified natural resource company had won the auction of Baghmara gold mine in Chhattisgarh.

The gold mine at Baghmara in Baloda bazar district is one the oldest explored deposit of the precious metal in Central India.The country imports around 1,000 tonnes of gold every year. The Delhi-based natural resource company said it would find deeper reserves by using new technologies which were never explored before. Vedanta is also looking to encourage the exploration of bauxite in Chhattisgarh as it needs to find a secure supply of captive bauxite for its aluminium business in India. The company has been working on it for more than ten years.

"India is blessed with bauxite resources which are feed stock for aluminium business and for us to be importing bauxite from Africa, when we have it in our backyard is probably not the best economic solution nor is it sustainable," he said.