Andhra Pradesh Villages Extract Gold from Sand Waste for Livelihood | Here's How
Eguva Sambaiah Palem, Diguva Sambaiah Palem, and Kallupudi are situated in the Thottambedu mandal of the Tirupati district and about 600 among the 800 families in the villages have taken this up as their profession
The mode of livelihood for many families in three villages of Andhra Pradesh is extracting gold from sand waste, which they collect from jewellery-making shops. Eguva Sambaiah Palem, Diguva Sambaiah Palem, and Kallupudi are situated in the Thottambedu mandal of the Tirupati district and about 600 among the 800 families in the villages have taken this up as their profession.
The sand waste is from the jewellery shops of Bangalore and Chennai, where it is mixed with minute particles of gold. The process used for extraction requires the water to be mixed in the sand waste to make it into mud balls. The mud balls are then burnt with cow dung cakes at high temperatures after which the villagers cool them and take them to powder using machines. The powder is then put in a wooden vessel and mixed with rock salt and mercury. In the process, the gold in the powder is mixed well with the mercury but later the mercury is separated by pouring water in the mixture. The mercury is kept in a dried black cloth.
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Gradually, the gold mixed with mercury and other metals will be extracted. As gold with other metals gets melted at 100 degrees temperature in a furnace, the output of the same is melted with acid to separate the gold from the other metals.
Chenchaiah, one of the gold processing workers, said, “Before the Covid-19 pandemic, we were getting large quantity of sand waste from the jewellery shops at a lowest price. But, now the situation was changed and the shop owners have increased the price. We are also facing difficulties while transporting the sand waste to our village."
“The government authorities had assured us to provide badges (Identification Cards), but they failed to keep the promise", she added.
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