The Hatti Gold Mine Company has so far produced 99.12 tonnes of gold since its mining operations began in the main gold mine at Hatti in Raichur during 1902. To recover the yellow metal from the ore, the company has milled 21.05 million tonnes of gold ore.
While the the main mine that operated at Hatti between 1902 and 1918 produced 7.41 tonnes at a recovery rate of 19.49 gm per tonne, the average recovery rate over the years is at 4.71 gm per tonne, data placed in the Legislative Council shows. In 2020-2021, the recovery rate remained at 2.48 gm per tonne for about 4.5 lakh tonnes of ore milled. In fact, the recovery rate per tonne has remained below 4 gm since 2009 and below 3 gm since 2012-2013.
The data shows besides the 7.41 tonnes of gold from the main gold mine, over the years gold has been produced in other mines too. They include 87.01 tonne from Hatti, 0.12 tonnes from Mangalore gold mine, 1.20 tonnes from Hira-Buddinni gold mine, 2.21 tonnes from Uti gold mine, and 1.18 tonnes from Chitradurga gold unit. Of the gold ore mined in different places, Hutti gold mine yielded the highest at 4.72 gm per tonne while Chitradurga gold unit yielded the lowest at 1.51 gm per tonne.
The data placed in response to a question from BJP member Sunil Vallyapure, the Government said that the company was currently processing about 1,800 to 2,000 tonnes of ore daily, and plans are there to upgrade the processing capacity to 2,000 to 3,000 tonnes a day. The construction of a circular shaft, which is in final stages, will enable higher production of gold while works for upgradation in South Hatti will enable higher production of ore. Upgradation in metullargy department will help processing ore up to 3,000 tonnes a day.
