Kolar Gold Field

Geology and Livelihoods #19

I came across this excellent documentary on the Kolar Gold Field via Twitter. The film is directed by Basav Biradar and produced by Sahapedia.

Email subscribers who are unable to see the embedded video can watch it here- In Search of Gold.

Like many established mining towns, Kolar too saw generations of the same family work in the mines. Son followed father into the dark shafts. Mining provided employment, but it was dangerous back breaking work. The documentary highlights the lives of workers and their struggle for better work conditions. 

Kolar gold is late Archaean in age with mineralization taking place between 2700-2500 million years ago. There are two types of deposits. There is a "stratiform sulphide type", so called because the gold bodies are contained within iron sulphide rich volcanic and sedimentary layers. These deposits formed on the sea floor contemporaneous with volcanism and sedimentation. The second type is a hydrothermal deposit wherein mineralizing fluids mobilized and precipitated gold in veins along N-NE oriented fracture zones. This mineralization event occurred at a later stage when magmatism and metamorphism affected the host terrain.

But do watch this for the many personal stories of the people who worked the mines.