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The euphoria over the claim that around 3,000 tonnes of gold reserves, worth Rs 12 trillion, have been discovered in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district could not last even 24 hours, with the Geological Survey of India (GSI) clarifying on Saturday there had been no such discovery.

The GSI, headquartered in Kolkata, rebutted the claims of the Uttar Pradesh Directorate of Geology and Mining (UPDGM), and said “miscommunication” must have led to the wrong reporting of facts.

M Sridhar, director general of the GSI, said nobody in the agency gave any such data. He said 52,806 tonnes of gold ore was found in Sonbhadra district during the exploration work in 1998-2000. From this reserve, only 160 kg of gold can be extracted.

“There must have been some miscommunication of facts because of which the gold ore deposits have been overestimated. We have written a letter to Uttar Pradesh (UPDGM), stating the facts. The GSI has not estimated such kind of vast resource of gold deposits in Sonbhadra,” Sridhar said.

ALSO READ: 2,900-tonne gold mine found in Sonbhadra, 4 times that of India's reserves

The UPDGM had said on Friday that gold deposits were found in Son Pahadi and Hardi areas of the district. Sridhar said while gold ore was found in the area during the GSI’s exploration work in 1998-2000, it had told the state government about the discovery in November last year.

Under the new regulation, which came into effect from 2015, the GSI has to inform the state government when ore deposits are discovered. Earlier, no such action was mandatory. In its report, the GSI estimated that only 3.03 gm of gold can be extracted from a tonne of ore. It also clarified that even the extraction amount was tentative and could not be established for certain.

Moreover, Sridhar said the deposits were spread across only 0.5 sq km in forest land, which made the mining of ore economically unviable. “When there are several mines nearby, we can club it into a block and then it makes sense to mine the ore. But in this case, the deposits are too small to make it viable for any company to mine it,” he said. The GSI usually prioritises its exploration work based on the needs of the Centre. While strategic minerals like tin, cobalt, lithium, beryllium, germanium, gallium, indium, tantalum, niobium, selenium, and bismuth are atop the list in GSI exploration, gold is another commodity on its priority list.

According to the World Gold Council, India has reserves of 630 tonnes of gold.

Bengaluru, Feb 27: Famous music composer from Kannada film industry, Arjun Janya suffered a minor heart attack. The music composer was immediately taken to Apollo hospital in Mysore where he is currently undergoing treatment.

According to the doctor, Arjun Janya developed chest pain and was admitted to the hospital. The doctor revealed that he is out of danger now and will be kept under observation for a couple of days.

The 39-year-old composer-singer has scored music for successful Kannada films like Birugaali, Kempegowda, Varadanayaka and others.

Bengaluru, May 22: The Karnataka government, which has fixed Rs 200 as fine for not wearing masks and covering faces to contain coronavirus spread, has collected Rs 3.43 lakh from 15,000 people as fine from May 5 till date.

"From May 5, the government has collected Rs 3,43,000 by fining 1,715 citizens for nor wearing masks or covering their faces," the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) Commissioner said in a statement.

Here is a zone-wise chart showing fines that have been collected:

Meanwhile, Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said the state has reached its target of scaling up to 10,000 tests per day by conducting 11,499 tests on Thursday. In Kalaburagi, where the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the State, conducted over 1000 tests yesterday.

"By conducting 11,449 COVID-19 tests yesterday, we reached our target of scaling up to 10,000 tests per day Kalaburagi that saw the first COVID-19 case in the state conducted over 1000 tests yesterday," Sudhakar said.

As per the Union Health Ministry, Karnataka has 1,605 positive cases, of which 571 have been recovered and discharged and 41 have succumbed to the infection.