Jonnagiri: India’s largest private gold mine set to yield a tonne of gold a year
The Jonnagiri gold mine in Kurnool, which was inaugurated by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, is India’s largest private gold mine and the only operating gold mine for now. Around 400 kg of gold is expected to be produced in 2026-27, reaching one tonne per year.
Spread across 597.82 hectares of mining lease area in Kurnool’s Tuggali mandal, the mine covers Jonnagiri, Erragudi and Pagadirai villages. Developer Geomysore Services (India) calls it the “first private sector gold mine with an integrated processing plant” in the country in 70 years.
India buys much more gold than it mines. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, it imported a record gold of $71.98 billion, or approximately 721 tons, in 2025-2026; this accounts for almost all of what he consumes. In comparison, Jonnagiri’s production, even full tonnes per year, is only a small fraction of one percent.
Why did Andhra Pradesh leave this to a private firm?
For over a century, India’s gold stood for the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF). Primary gold mining ceased after it was closed in 2001, leaving only the state-owned Hutti mine in Karnataka. Reviving a buried deposit is slow, costly and uncertain.
Backed by Tamil Nadu-based Thriveni Earthmovers and partly owned by listed explorer Deccan Gold Mines, Geomysore maintained the land from the 1990s, applying for mining leases in 2006 and only now reaching production after an investment of around Rs 405 crore.
The law has made this route possible: since 2015, mining blocks have to be sold at auction, and a 2021 amendment allows a private explorer who proves there is a mineral deposit to hold it, mine it and sell the gold freely. Jonnagiri is the first large-scale private mine to enter through this gate. In India, gold is listed among the metallic minerals as a particularly valuable metal.
What Andhra Pradesh gets
According to a line of business reportThe state bears no risk but earns from every gram of gold. Official estimates put the royalty, set at 4% of the value of gold, at around ₹57 crore in the first year and around ₹144 crore as production increases.
Under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, the lessee is also required to pay a share of the royalties to the District Mining Trust, a fund for people and areas affected by mining. The share has been fixed at 30% of royalty for leases granted by the Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana before 2015 and 10% for those won at auction since then, and has been used for needs such as drinking water, healthcare and education in the mining belt.
Workforce: There are approximately 300 direct and 300 indirect jobs in Geomysore.
The Cabinet also suggested renaming Jonnagiri village as ‘Swarnagiri’ or Golden Hill, a start that was included in Mr. Naidu’s ‘Swarna Andhra 2047’ plan for a larger State economy by the country’s centenary.
On the ground in Jonnagiri
Jonnagiri is an open-pit mine located in the Jonnagiri greenstone belt, the same Dharwar rock that hosts Kolar and Hutti. The company’s own mining plan, published on its website, allows it to mine 0.4 million tons of deposits per year. The ore is drilled, blasted and crushed, the gold is extracted by gravity and carbon leaching through the cyanide process, and is melted on site to form dore, a rough rod that is then converted into pure metal.
The water comes from the Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi canal through an 18 km pipeline, which is an irrigation lifeline in a dry region of Rayalaseema. On its website, Geomysore lists its work from drinking water in villages to schools and fields in the leased area, saying it has drilled 40 boreholes, 10 of which provide water, and provides drinking water to “about 3,000 people every day during the summer months” and two schools.
KGF to Jonnagiri
Kolar gave up an estimated 800 to 900 tonnes of gold over 120 years and sank 2 miles, among the deepest in the world, before its ore thinned out and the State abandoned it. Deccan Gold Mines’ investor records show that Jonnagiri’s audited resource contains approximately 8.2 million tonnes of ore, close to 12 tonnes of gold, at 1.49 grams per tonne, and has a life of eight to nine years in the main pit.
The state has talked of a much larger increase of up to 42.5 tonnes, but that remains an exploration target and the ground beneath Jonnagiri is not ready to give it up just yet.
It was published – 24 June 2026 14:07 IST
