Apr 09, 2026 16:35 pm IST

India Sits Atop 500 Million Tons Of Gold Ore. Why Isn't It Being Mined? - By Shashi Tharoor

We mine a pittance - barely one and a half tons a year - while draining our foreign exchange reserves to import hundreds of tons annually from mines in Australia, Ghana, and Peru.

Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor MP, Columnist

Shashi Tharoor MP, Columnist

We are a nation obsessed with gold, a civilisation that treats the yellow metal as both a spiritual necessity and the ultimate firewall against the vagaries of fortune. Yet, while we sit atop an estimated 500 million tons of unmined gold ore, our domestic production remains a rounding error on the global ledger. We mine a pittance - barely one and a half tons a year - while draining our foreign exchange reserves to import hundreds of tons annually from mines in Australia, Ghana, and Peru. This state of affairs is more than an irony; it is a self-inflicted wound that undermines our economic sovereignty at a time when the world order is fracturing.

Look Beyond Scarcity, Suspicion

The glittering paradox that sits at the heart of the Indian economy is not merely a curiosity for geologists; it is a profound indictment of national policy. For decades, the Indian state has approached gold mining with a mindset of scarcity and suspicion rather than one of strategic abundance. The regulatory labyrinth that a prospective miner must navigate is so dense and archaic that it effectively functions as a prohibition. From the initial reconnaissance permit to the final mining lease, the process is a gauntlet of overlapping jurisdictions, opaque environmental clearances, and a tax regime that punishes the very risk-taking it should be courting.........

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