Gold is a precious metal but in India at present the reserves of gold ore are low. Gold mining in India has a long history and official records have confirmed that old gold mine sites are found which are of two hundred years old. Presently, gold is mined Hutti mines in the Raichur district of Karnataka. The other mine is located in Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh. Pure gold has a bright yellow colour and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidising in air or water.

India is the largest importer and consumer of Gold but Gold mining remains at a low level. India’s domestic gold production was at 3.05 tonnes during the financial year 2006. The low production of gold have adversely affected the economy of the country and the government has asked domestic gold miners to actively survey joint venture with foreign companies to speed up exploration of the yellow metal within the country. The Geological Survey of India and the Mineral Exploration Corporation of India are two of the major government agencies that carry out verification surveys on gold mining in India. In India, identification of gold bearing zones is done by gathering rock chip specimens from favourable places for gold mineralisation while planning the geological chart of the region. In case the rocks are not exposed stream sediment sampling method is implemented to spot the gold anomalous areas. Geophysical methods can also be arranged to situate any conductive bodies below the soil cover. Three dimensions sampling of gold bearing zones is carried out by reverse circulation drilling and diamond core drilling. Based on this three dimension sampling of the gold-bearing zone, a global resource of the gold deposit is estimated. The global resource is again worked upon by close spaced diamond core drilling along length and dip of ore body and sampling to develop the dependability of the global resource approximation.

The Hutti gold mines, which is owned by the government of Karnataka expects its gold production to touch 3.5 tones in three to five years from now, from the current 2.8 tones. It is the only company in India which produces gold by mining and processing the gold ore. Present gold-producing centers of India have observed very old and modern mining activities.