The company did not even contest court cases of pilferage. The committee also found that the management had been spending a substantial share of its earnings paying electricity bills though the company had its own hydel power station at Shivasamudram. During the Second World War, the mines employed about 32,000 workers who toiled to develop Mysore into one of the industrialised states in India. There was a time when the Kolar Gold Mines contributed nearly one-third of the total revenue of the Mysore government. The cost of production, they say, was high basically due to high interest rate, power costs and mismanagement.
Experts differ on the amount of gold reserves in Karnataka.
The Indian Bureau of Mines says there are 65 tonnes of gold reserves, but the Geological Survey of India puts it at 15.5 tonnes. The estimated net budgetary support for the exploratory phase was Rs 1.7 crore with a revenue of Rs 2.3 crore. Plight of Workers During the Second World War, the Kolar Gold Mines employed 32,000 workers and when the decision to close the mines was taken the strength had weakened to only 6,000. A lot of talent has been thrown out of the company which has resulted into 40 per cent loss of gold. The majority of people who worked in the mines do not know any other work because they had been in this field, generation after generation.