Changing Hands
The Kolar Gold Mines were taken up for systematic exploitation by John Taylor & Sons in 1880. The next 60 years saw the mines gaining name and fame with the word "Kolar" becoming a synonym for gold in India. After independence in 1947 it was decided to nationalise the mines and in 1956 they were handed over by John Taylor & Co. to the government of Mysore for being run as a state enterprise. With the Gold Control Act in 1960 the Finance Ministry of the central government took over the mines and gave the national Mint the exclusive rights to all gold from Kolar. In 1972 the Bharat Gold Mines Limited (BGML) was established by the government of India under the Ministry of Mines and the Kolar mines were handed over to the BGML to be run as a PSU of the central government.
By that time the last three remaining mines of Kolar viz. Mysore, Champion and Nandydroog were already beginning to run their course. During the next 20 years the miners had to go deeper and deeper for the remaining gold until at 3000 metres Kolar came to be known as the second deepest mine in the world. The quality of gold ore also started steadily deteriorating from the once amazing 14 g/t to <4g/t. By 1992 the net worth of BGML was fully eroded. By 1998 the reserves came close to exhaustion and the cost of extracting gold exceeded the price of gold by more than ten times. Several studies carried out by experts concluded that the time had come for Kolar to pass into history.
Read more about this topic: Bharat Gold Mines Limited
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