Real KGF- Kolar Gold Fields

 Kolar Gold Fields (K.G.F.)

Kolar Gold Fields (K.G.F.) is a mining region in K.G.F. taluk (township), Kolar district, Karnataka, India. Operated by the Bharat Gold Mines Limited (BGML). It is estimated that gold has been mined there for over 2000 years, and whilst many people over the course of history tried their luck at finding gold, Kolar Gold Field’s modern success is generally attributed to the firm John Taylor & Sons, after John Taylor III took control of the mines in 1880 and established what was at one time the deepest and most productive gold mine in the world. The mines were run by the company up until 1956 when they were taken over by the Government of Mysore who employed John Taylor & Sons as mining consultants.

workers:

Photo via Flickr. THE KOLAR GOLD-FIELDS in the Middle Ages, where men are crawling about like busy ants in the pursuit of their various occupations. Lighting our candles, and leaving coats and waist coats at the shaft, we proceed on our eerie promenade through this nether world. Our way lies toward a certain rock face half a mile distant, where a rich line of quartz has recently been struck. 

At its peak KGF was home to 30000 mine workers and their families and was a multi ethnic community with experienced miners recruited  from around the world, a large proportion of which were from Cornwall. When the mines opened the local people were reluctant to work there as it was extremely dangerous work, so workers migrated from Tamil Nadu and Tamil became a common language spoken by most people at KGF. There was a large Anglo-Indian population at KGF many of whom took on the roles of British workers after Indian Independence in 1947.

The laborer's who used to work in these mines live in poverty without any financial and health aid from the government. Residents live in shanties smaller than 100 square feet in over 400 colonies. The living conditions in those colonies are very poor as well as people don’t have access to proper toilet facilities and there are open drains in the colonies for wastewater which ends up triggering a host of communicable diseases. About 260,000 people still live in the Kolar Gold Fields.

KGF-Shutdown/Closure

The Kolar gold mines were nationalized in 1956, and provided a total of over 900 tones of gold. They were closed by the Indian government on 28 February 2001 for environmental and economic reasons; food, water and shelter were scarce, and production did not justify the investment because the rate of the gold was dropped on that year. but now it is said that Nearly two decades after the gold mines shut down in Kolar, the Union government has decided to revive the mining operations. the further updates have not been said yet.

Can we visit Kolar Gold Fields?

Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) is the name of city. You can visit this city without any permission. However if you talking of visiting abandoned gold mines. presently there is permission to visit the underground gold mines as such by any authorities. But you can see the premises of abandoned Gold mines shafts far away distance.