This story is from July 3, 2015

Gold mining again? KGF residents jittery

Much before sunrise, Jayaseelan Thangaraju, 50, boards the first train from Bangarpet station to Bengaluru where he paints walls, subways and flyovers to earn Rs 400 a day.
Gold mining again? KGF residents jittery
BENGALURU: Much before sunrise, Jayaseelan Thangaraju, 50, boards the first train from Bangarpet station to Bengaluru where he paints walls, subways and flyovers to earn Rs 400 a day. No matter how exhausted he is, Jayaseelan has to catch the evening train to return to his small house in the mining town of Kolar Gold Fields. For, he cannot afford to rent a house elsewhere.

For the past 10 years, this has been the routine of Jayaseelan and nearly 30,000 residents of KGF. Ever since Bharat Gold Mines Limited (BGML) shut down in 2001, Jayaseelan and others were forced to find menial jobs in Bengaluru. Some clean drains while others build houses or roads.
Now, the government's decision to restart gold mining in the fields has once again pushed their lives into uncertainty. They fear that open-cast mining, a process in which the hard rock layer covering gold deposits will be removed, will destroy the town and render them homeless.
A team led by Dass Chinnasavari, vice-president of KGF city council and convener of KGF Citizens Protection Forum, on Thursday came to Bengaluru seeking citizens' support to save Kolar from what they call an impending danger. After the Centre floated a global tender to sell the assets of BGML and restart mining, companies from Australia and Europe have shown interest.
"Instead of open-cast mining, the companies can extract gold from tailings, also called cyanide dump. Fifteen tonnes of gold can be taken from the dump spread over 12,000 acres in KGF," Chinnasavari said.
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