BRIEF NOTE ON MINES OF KHETRI COPPER COMPLEX

MINING – A LEGACY OF GLORY

Mining was flourishing at Khetri during Indus Valley civilisation. The oldest hill range of the Aravalli hills form the host for copper mineralization, giving raise to a 76 km long metallogenetic province, from Singhana to Raghunathgarh, best known as Khetri Copper Belt.

The slag heaps at Singhana, Khetri, Papurna, Babai and many more places and the innumerable ancient workings in the form of pits, inclines, shafts etc., bear testimony to the fact that mining and smelting activities were in practice since times immemorial.

Though the recent archaeological extrapolations, arrived at on the basis of excavations at Ganeshwar, near Neem-Ka-Thana, logically ascribe the mining activity in the area to Harappa-Mohanjodaro civilization, the first recorded mention of copper mining in this belt is found in Ain-I-Akbari, written by Sheikh Abul Fazal in the year 1590, during the period of Moghul Emperor, Akbar the Great, wherein the following lines appear:

"Babai has a stone fort and a copper mine" "Singhana Udaipur has a copper mine and a mint for copper coinage."

It is reported that two mints were functioning at Singhana and Khetri towns up to 1869, when the British closed them.

Though regular mining ceased in this area by 1872, sporadic mining activity continued till 1910. With the advent of 20th century, the geologists of Geological Survey of India carried out preliminary geological work without much success. With the basic geological information in hand, Jaipur Mining Corporation entered the fray in 1944, carried out surface exploration through 4 diamond drill holes and did some aditing in the area. After holding the lease for 10 years till 1955, discouraged by the results, they wound up the programme of exploration and mining.