At least one Indian company specialising in fabrication of precious metal products is keen to start by December a gold refinery, only the second in the country, at the huge land parcel of Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation at Kongarkalan on Hyderabad outskirts.
Another company has also evinced interest to set up one more gold refinery in a five-acre plot that the Telangana government wanted to allot to them but firm proposals from that group were not received.
According to Principal Secretary Industries, Jayesh Ranjan, the two refineries and ten jewellery processing units (one company wants to set up three units) were on government’s agenda to give a further push to the gems and jewellery market whose exports from the State were worth ₹ 6,000 crore last year. Gems and jewellery were among the 14 priority sector industries identified by the government.
Also, the units will rehabilitate the 1,000-odd displaced workers of Gitanjali Gems Park which is a SEZ at nearby Ravirala village but closed following nation-wide raids on Gitanjali properties for its involvement in the Punjab National Bank fraud.
The government is expediting proposals to be sent to the Board of Approvals (BoA), the highest decision making body on Special Economic Zones, for sanction of SEZ to the jewellery processing units over 25 acres. It has sought project reports from the companies to be forwarded to the BoA well before its next meeting in May end or early June. The gold refineries, however, will come up in non-SEZ area.
Mr. Ranjan said unrefined gold from Africa will be imported by the companies by air and transported to the refineries under strict security for production of gold dores. There was only one company involved in this activity at Nadaun in Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh. Otherwise, jewellery processing units import refined gold from abroad to produce finished products.
The refinery that has already expressed willingness to start operations with a production capacity of 30 tonnes per annum of gold dores and 100 tonnes per annum of silver dores with a fixed and working capital of ₹ 550 crore in the first phase. The production will be scaled up to 50 tonnes of gold dores and 150 tonnes of silver dores in the second phase with a capital of ₹ 750 crore. It has projected an annual turnover of ₹25,000 crore.
Revenue generator
The government hopes that the Gross State Domestic Product will go up significantly with the coming up of the refineries and processing units. The erstwhile Andhra Pradesh was the second largest consumer of gold in the country.
