Andhra Pradesh is sitting on huge lead-zinc reserves

Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh is sitting on a huge reserve of important base metals, lead-zinc. This came to light during a recent surveys by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) which noted that around 14 million tonnes of zinc reserves were found in Kadapa region.

Lead and zinc occur together in the form of an ore along with other metals like silver and cadmium. Zinc is a silvery blue-grey metal with a relatively low melting and boiling point.

Earlier surveys by the Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd suggested that there were 7 million tonnes in the region. The latest surveys pointed out another 7 million tonnes of these reserves.

“GSI, an attached office of Ministry of Mines, conducted aerial surveys to find out base metals like lead and zinc across the country including Andhra Pradesh. Potential areas for base-metal resources were identified ground exploration was carried out. Lead-zinc at Gollapalle, Kadapa district, Ap with estimated resources of 14 million tonnes were found in the ground explorations,” said, union minister of state for mines and power, Piyush Goyal in the Parliament recently to a query by YSRC MP from Ongole, Y.V. Subba Reddy.

On identification of potential areas, GSI adopts multi-disciplinary approach for mineral exploration which inclu-des large scale and detailed mapping aided by interpretative analysis of remotely sensed and aero geophysical data, ground geophysical survey, geochemical prospecting and subsurface exploration through pitting, trenching and followed by drilling.

The resource evaluation is pursued in conformity with the exploration input for successive levels of G4, G3, G2 stages of United Nations Framework Classi-fication.

Rajasthan-based Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) of Vedanta Group HZL is the only integrated lead and zinc producer in the country. The company is into mining and smelting. It has seven mining operations and three smelting operations. All operations are located in Rajasthan.