The Pre-Cambrian geological setting of the Indian
sub-continent is very much like that of Australia
and Canada (Figure 1). In particular, the classic
Archaean granite-greenstone terrain located
in southern India contains the world-class
lode gold deposits of Kolar and Hutti gold
mines. The former, now exhausted, produced
over 800 tonnes of gold from 50 million tonnes
of ore, at an average grade of 16g/t Au. Hutti,
the only operating gold mine in the country,
has produced 100 tonnes of gold with a resource
inventory comparable to that of Kolar.
The Indian sub-continent contains a number of
lower to mid Proterozoic provinces comparable
in size and mineral endowment to those of the
Australian Proterozoic terranes, some of which
host world class base metal deposits.
The Proterozoic and Archaean provinces also
contain various layered mafic-ultramafic complexes,
prospective for nickel-platinum. Similarly, the
Indian sub-continent is well endowed with diamonds
(having produced the largest diamond finds ever
reported), iron ore, bauxite and coal, rare earths,
manganese, chromite, industrial minerals, ornamental
stones and limestone.
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