Around 3,500 Tonne Gold Reserve Found In UP’s Sonbhadra5Photo© timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Around 3,500 Tonne Gold Reserve Found In UP’s Sonbhadra

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A large gold reserve that is more than twice India’s current household stocks of the yellow metal have been found in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district, government sources said here. After almost two decades of exploration, the Geological Survey of India and Uttar Pradesh directorate of geology and mining have discovered two deposits with estimated gold reserves of 52,806 tonne in Sona Pahadi and Hardi villages in the state’s Sonbhadra district, they said.

India’s household gold stocks, the largest in the world, are close to 25,000 tonne. With virtually no domestic production, India meets its entire gold demand through imports and this pressures the country’s current account.

The country’s gold imports in 2019 fell 12% annually to 690 tonne, the lowest level in three years as retail purchases of the metal ebbed in the second half of the year as domestic prices rallied to a record high. In value terms, 2019 imports fell nearly 2% to $31.22 billion.