KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – The Indian government would soon invite foreign mine developers and operators  (MDOs) to restart the Kolar gold mines, which have been lying dormant for the last 12 years.

An official in India’s Mines Ministry, which owns the Kolar gold mines, located in the southern province of Karnataka, through government-owned Bharat Gold Mines Limited (BGML), said the government would float global tenders to attract MDOs to invest in and restart operations at the mines.

This follows a Supreme Court order, which permits the Indian government to involve foreign miners in the mines, while dismissing a series of legal challenges brought by BGML employees over the past decade, the official said.

India's apex court, on Tuesday, ruled that the government could proceed with implementing the Cabinet’s decision to restart the Kolar gold mines but that it would have to categorically clarify to the MDOs that the lease to mine gold at Kolar had been granted to BGML which, in turn, had subleased part of the 12 095 acres of property to mining equipment manufacturer Bharat Earth Movers. This sublease was to expire only in 2014.

Meanwhile, officials from the Geological Survey of India (GSI) expressed caution over the feasibility of reviving the Kolar operations.

According to one GSI official, a significant capital investment would be required to restart the gold mines, where operations had stopped 12 years ago owing to poor-quality ore and the limited remaining resource.

Resources remaining underground are estimated to be around three-million tons of ore, which could yield low-quality gold and could produce a maximum of 12 t of gold over the next 12 years, unless fresh geological surveys were conducted and yielded positive results, the official added.

According to the Indian Bureau of Mines, the country’s total gold resource, as per the United Nations Framework Classification for Fossil Energy and Mineral Reserves and Resources, was estimated at 493-million tons of which 24-million tons was in the reserved category.

India, the world’s largest importer of gold, shipped in 860 t in 2012/13, with imports in June at 37 t, falling sharply from 162 t in the previous month, in response to curbs imposed by the government.