Hatti Gold Mines, also spelled Hutti, is a

notified area council A nagar panchayat (town panchayat; ) or Notified Area Council (NAC) in India is a settlement in transition from rural to urban and therefore a form of an urban political unit comparable to a municipality. An urban centre with more than 12,000 ...

Raichur district Raichur District is an administrative district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located in the northeast part of the state and is bounded by Yadgir district in the north, Bijapur and Bagalkot district in the northwest, Koppal district ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

. The mines are owned and operated by Hutti Gold Mines Limited. Hatti is situated in Raichur District, Karnataka State and is 80 km (50 miles) due west of Raichur, which is also the nearest railway station.

Demographics

the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, Hatti had a population of 13,536 across 2,676 households. There were 6,858 males (50.6%) and 6,678 females (49.4%). 10,305 (76%) of people were literate. 1,384 (10%) were under the age of 6.

History

This mine is probably one of the most ancient metal mines in the world, dating to the Pre-Ashokan period, the ancient miners having worked down to a depth of over 2300 feet. It is probable they had broken the rock by "fire-setting" i.e. heating it by means of fires and suddenly cooling it by pouring water onto the heated rock causing pieces to break off. As per carbon dating done by Dr. Rafter from Australia in the year 1955, the age of the two samples of timber found in old workings was estimated to be about 1980 years old. For crushing the ore to extract the

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

they used a grinding stone similar to those used now for making masalas and a few of which can even now be found in the area. The actual gold was recovered by passing the crushed ore, mixed with water, over goats' skins, the fur trapping the heavy particles of gold while allowing the lighter minerals to be washed off. In addition to the ancient mining in mentioned above, there was further mining in the area between 1890 and 1920 when the price of gold was about Rs. 18 for 10 grams (Rs 20.97 per tola). The biggest of these ventures was at Hutti where, from 1902 to 1919, nearly 7,400 kg of gold were obtained from very rich ore, at an average yield of 19 g/tonne. Most of this ore came from the main mine, which reached a depth of about 1,100 m below surface. The industry closed down in 1920 due to technical difficulties and lack of funds. In 1937, the Nizam's Government decided to prospect the area again with a view to possible re-opening of the mines (the only industry in the area apart from agriculture) so as to provide employment. The area was a backward district, which was considered at that time to be a more or less perpetual famine area. In 1940, after some satisfactory exploratory work, it was decided to install a plant to treat 100 tonnes of mine ore per day, but before the plant could be obtained, operations were suspended, and from 1942 to 1946, due to World War II, the mine was shut down except for pumping. The company was originally formed in 1947 as the Hyderabad Gold mines Company Ltd., with the Hyderabad State Government holding a majority of the shares. After the end of the war, the scheme was resumed and production started in September 1948, at the rate of 130 tonnes of ore per day. By 1972 this rate had progressively increased to 600 tonnes of ore per day. With the re-organisation of the States in 1956, the company was transferred to Mysore State (now known as the Karnataka State) and became Hatti Gold Mines Limited. The mine produced about 38,56,300 tonnes of ore to yield about 26,550 kg at an average recovery of 6.88 g per tonne. In addition about 48,800 tonnes of gold

tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overli ...

lifted about 112 kg of gold production for the year 1982 – 83 was about 62.83 kg gold per month at an average recovery grade of 5.24 per g per tonne. After extensive working, the main mine became water-logged, and was closed.

Transport

Hatti is well connected by road to

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, Bagalkot,

Raichur Raichur (formerly Raichore) is a city and municipality in the district of Raichur in the Indian state of Karnataka. Raichur, located between Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers, is the headquarters of Raichur district. It is located 409 km fr ...

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and other major cities. The nearest major airport is in

Long-distance bus routes

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation - (Karnataka SRTC), is a state-owned public road transport corporation in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is wholly owned by the Government of Karnataka. It serves routes to towns and cities in ...

(KSRTC) runs a bus service to other cities and villages. There are also various private bus services.

Railways

Raichur is the nearest railway station to Hatti and Raichur is served by a major rail line and is well connected by trains to all major parts of India such as

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, Ahmedabad,

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and

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References