Farmers protest, Ooti gold mines shut

Raichur: Hutti Gold Mines has shut down its open cast mining  in Ooti village due to the opposition from farmers to laying of roads for transportation of ore through their  fields and the heavy expenditure involved. The company recently issued an order stopping the mining in Ooti and transferring the 170 employees stationed there to other places.

The only gold extracting company in the country, Hutti started open cast mining at Ooti and  Hira -Budinni villages in nearby Deodurg taluk about a decade ago.
The operation saw its daily production shoot up to 2,000 tonnes a day.

Although the concentration of gold was only two grams a tonne in the Ooti unit, the company continued mining there to provide employment to the local workers.
But then the farmers began to object to the transportation of the ore over 25 kms through their land and demanded compensation for crop loss. When their pleas went unheard, the farmers approached the court in 2013, and the case remains pending .

However, attempting to respond to the farmers’ distress, Hutti tried to transport the ore on the roads on either side of the Narayanapura Righ Bank Canal.

But had to give up this as well owing to objections raised by the canal authorities.
With hurdles galore in transportation, about 50,000 tonnes of the ore is reportedly wasting away in the Ooti mining blocks even today.