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Sand waste from jewelry stores in Bangalore and Chennai, where it is mixed with fine particles of gold. (photo: News18)
Eguva Sambaiah Palem, Diguva Sambaiah Palem and Kallupudi are located in Thottambedu mandal in Tirupati district and about 600 out of 800 families in the villages have taken up this profession.
The way of livelihood for many families in three villages in Andhra Pradesh is to extract gold from the sandy waste they collect from jewelry stores. Eguva Sambaiah Palem, Diguva Sambaiah Palem and Kallupudi are located in Thottambedu mandal in Tirupati district and about 600 out of 800 families in the villages have taken up this profession.
Sand waste from jewelry stores in Bangalore and Chennai, where it is mixed with fine particles of gold. The process used for extraction requires mixing water into waste sand to turn it into clay balls. Then the mud balls with cow dung cakes are fired at high temperatures, after which they are cooled by the villagers and ground into a powder using machines. Then the powder was placed in a wooden bowl and mixed with saltpeter and mercury. In this process, the gold in the powder is mixed well with the mercury but the mercury is later separated by pouring water into the mixture. Mercury is kept in a dry black cloth.
Gradually, gold mixed with mercury and other metals will be extracted. When gold is melted along with other metals at a temperature of 100 degrees in a furnace, their product is dissolved with acid to separate the gold from the other metals.
Shenchaya, a gold processing worker, said, “Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we used to get a large amount of waste sand from jewelry shops at the lowest price. But now the situation has changed and shop owners have raised the price. We are also facing difficulties while transporting waste sand to our village.”
“The government authorities assured us to provide badges, but they failed to keep their promise,” she added.
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