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History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c12.s1.t4: Gold Mining

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c12.s1.t4

Language
English

Gold Mining

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Mention of gold in India has been made in the *Ṛgveda*, the *Sūtras*, the *Purāṇas*, in the *Mahābhārata* and *Rāmāyaṇa*, in the Hebrew and Roman Scriptures and in Greek and Roman literatures. The Harappan culture of 3rd and 5th millennium B.C. testifies to the world the early activity in Kolar Goldfields.

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From the very earliest times gold has been produced in India by the inhabitants of the country either by mining the outcrops of gold bearing quartz veins or by washing sands for sparsely disseminated alluvial gold.

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In Raichur district, names of villages starting with 'Honnu' and 'Chinna' (which means gold in Old Kanarese) suggest gold mining. At Maski an ancient gold metallurgical plant was discovered barely 100 yards away from a cave containing Ashokan inscription. It is more or less certain that Phoenician traders carried away the gold from India in olden days.

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There appears to be little doubt that at some unknown period in the mists of Indian history (perhaps as far back as 2000 years ago) a race of people highly skilled in mining and metallurgy explored and prospected all the auriferous areas in South India. Ancient workings are so widespread that no reef carrying economic values appears to have escaped the attention of these early prospectors.

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The actual date when gold mining was started in India is not known. Hutti mine, which is probably one of the most ancient mines in the world dates back to the pre-Ashokan period. As per carbon dating done by Rafter of Australia in the year 1955, the age of the two samples of timber found in the old workings was estimated to be 1900 year old.

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It is noteworthy that practically all the working mines in India have been established only on deposits indicated by the existence of ancient workings. One of the foremost among them are K.G.F.. mines. The other mines are Hutti gold mine, Kudrikonda (South West of Hannnali), Jalagargundi North of Chitaladurg, Ajjanhalli and Bellora Mines (Karnataka State). North Anantpur and Jibutil mines (Andhra Pradesh), the Dharwar reef mine, Wynad district mines (Maharastra). *Fig.2* shows the locations where ancient workings of gold have been found.

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Fig.2. Sites of ancient gold mines in India

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Maclaren (1905) and Munn (1934, 1936) in their articles have given descriptions of the ancient gold mines which have been summarised

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(i) At Hutti, the old workings reached a depth of 640 feet (195.07 m) a depth unparalleled by another truly ancient working yet discovered in any part of the world. The difficulty of working must have been accentuated by the steepness of the reef and by the hardness of the rock, every inch of which was doubtless broken by the laborious method of “fire setting”, heating the rock with fire and dashing water over the heated surface. Pieces of charred wood used for this purpose are still to be found in the old workings.

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Beyond this evidence, that of a few vertical groovings on a shoulder of the hard footwall at Hutti, and that of a couple of tools found in the old workings at the same place, there remains no trace of the methods used in the extraction of quartz. The groovings are undoubtedly the results of the long continued attrition of haulage ropes. A scraper like tool was also found and similar tool was found at Oorgaum mine at Kolar (Smith, 1889). A chain of men handled from one to another vessel filled with water. A vertical shaft at Kabulayatkatti indicates that the ancients were not ignorant of some form of windless ‘whip’ or ‘whim’.

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At Wandalli some of the old workings were 100-150 ft (30.48- 45.72 m) long, 20 ft (6.096) wide and as much as 15 ft (4.5 72 m) deep. The old workings were reached at a depth of 380 ft (115.82 m) in No 3 shift.

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Smith (1931) writes in a report to His Exalted Highness, the Nizam’s Government.

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“I quote The Mining Journal — that the ancient miners had gone down over 400 ft (121.92 m) vertically in some of the hardest rock known to modern mining”.

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“The ancient miners took out all the pay ore at Wandalli down to 400 ft (121.92 m) level”.

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(ii) At Topaldoddi mine the ancients mined on very rich patches of good quartz without any continuity. There are large number of small pits honey-combed over this zone.

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(iii) At Kadoni the ancients have taken away practically every thing down to 140 ft (42.67 m). There is a large old working 15 ft (4.57 m) deep and upwards of 60 ft (18.28 m) in diameter.

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(iv) In the South Maski field two chief lines of old workings exist, namely: (1) those in Maski village lands and (2) a very big working 409 feet (124.66m) long within the lands of Udbal. A map (Fig.3) prepared by Aubery shows a line of 13 old workings at Maski where one of the biggest old workings was 117 ft (35.66m) deep.

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At Chik Honkuni at the southern end of the inlier there are six adjacent old workings in all about 500 ft (152.4 m) in length.

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At the bottom of old workings at Hutti and other places in South India, about 10 ft (3.04 m) of broken ’chatties’ (clay pots) have been found which were used for bailing water.

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The old workings have also been found to have been filled up deliberately handpacked with large boulders and rock pieces and debris perhaps to conceal Fig.3. Map showing old workings at Maski (after Munn)

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mining work from the invaders or prevent in-flow of water and collapse of workings.

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In 1980 an old gold mine called Mangalur Gold Mine in Shorapur Taluk of Gulbarga district, Karnataka, was opened which was closed before the world War I The reclamation work revealed that the ancient people used wooden trolleys chassis (Fig.4) for tramming purpose and wooden rings (Fig.5) were used as turn table (Munn, 1934).

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There is clear evidence all over South India that wherever reefs, veins, or stringers of quartz occurred carrying anything over 2 to 3 dwts of gold to the ton, they did not escape the attention of early prospectors. They were systematically explored, prospected and mined. Mostly the depth to which mining was carried out was limited by water. Fire-setting was the means employed for extracting the ore and in the bottom of the old workings at Hutti as well as others wood ash and charcoal were found. The only suggestion as to the tools employed comes from a gouge like iron implement found at Hutti which apparently seems to have been fitted on to a wooden hat to make a pointed instrument. Windlasses and ropes were employed; one was unearthed at Hutti where the face of the rock was found to have been rubbed into grooves by the wear of the rope (Munn, 1934).

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Fig.4. Wooden trolley used by ancients for tramming

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Fig.5. Wooden rings used by ancients as turn table

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“Timbering of working places was understood and balks of babul (accasia arabica) were discovered. When the old workings at Hutti were first pierced at about 500 ft (152.4 m) an explosion of gas occurred, probably due to sudden release of pressure on the accumulated gases by old rotting timber.

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Water was the main problem that seems to have finally limited the mining operation in depth. A small spring in Hutti mine at 640 ft (195.07 m) brought their efforts to a close and at that level the presence of about 10 ft (3.04 m) of broken chatties (clay pots) was a clear evidence of how the ancients attempted to deal with this obstacle.

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Many saucer like depressions in the hard trappoid rock and large granite crushing stones mullackers some over a ton in weight scattered all over the Dharwar rocks, together with small pounding holes for initial crushing of the ore, give evidence of the metallurgical process prior to final panning. A large battery of these are to be found at Wandalli (Munn, 1934).

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The process of the extraction of the gold after the quartz had reached the surface are quite clear. The quartz was broken to about the size of a walnut in small cup shaped depressions in an adjacent dyke and was then introduced beneath great granite boulders which were rocked to and fro, crushing the quartz to powder by their own weight. The bottom rock on which crushing took place was preferably a diabase dyke, but where these were not available as at Wandalli, the harder Schist bands were used. The upper crushing stones were of intrusive diabase or of granite. Probably the boulders were transported to Wandalli from Yelagatti where they were formed by nature from porphyritic granite. Some of those boulders weighed more than 18 cwts. Crushing stones are occasionally found at considerable distances from quartz veins, and it would seem that it was only during the rains that crushing was effected near the workings where these were located at some distance from a water course.

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The final process of washing the gold was done in shallow wooden trays (Maclaren, 1905).

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The extraction of fine gold was carried out by adding mercury to a mixture of black sand and gold ore. They would rub the black sand mixture by adding a little common salt. In a little time the gold and mercury would form an amalgam and adding a little water to the mixture and agitating the dish, the particles of amalgam would come together and form a lump and black sand would be washed off. This lump of amalgam was rolled in a damp rag and after the superfluous mercury was squeezed off the rag, it was burned in a fire and a button of gold recovered. If the gold was found alloyed with silver or other base metals, it was hammered out between the two stones into a sheet. This sheet was coated with salt and with a little nitre (if copper was thought to be present). The plate was then laid between two layers of cow-dung and burned, the ash of the dung acted as a cupel and absorbed the base metals and left the pure gold (Bharat Gold Mines Ltd, notes, 1979).

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Judged by the standards then prevailing gold mining in ancient India was a highly developed industry. As regards the technique of mining, the method as common with hard rock mining for other metals was fire-setting and quenching with water to create a system of cracks in the rock enabling the extraction of ore with some scraper like tool. The excavations were supported by timber and pillars of ore were left to support the ground right from the top and the method of mining resulted in a series of open cuts as the top (Bose, 1968).

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Evidence of the use of earthen pitchers for bailing water and use of wooden trolleys for transport and windlass for hoisting have been found.

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Ventilation was not systematic. For fresh air the ancients depended entirely on natural ventilation.

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