1 GEOMORPHOLOGY the Quartz Mining Site of SLV Mines and Minerals Is Located Near D.Cherlopalli Village of Batahlapalli Mandal in Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh

ANNEXURE - IV REPORT ON THE HYDROGEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE SLV MINES & MINERALS AT D.CHERLOPALLI (V), BATHALAPALLI (M), ANANTAPUR DISRTRICT, A.P. 1 GEOMORPHOLOGY The quartz mining site of SLV Mines and Minerals is located near D.Cherlopalli village of Batahlapalli mandal in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. The mining site is located 4.50 km southwest of D.Cherlopalli village, 14.30 km east of Dharmavaram, and 40 km southeast of Anantapur (Figures 1 to 3). The area is as well shown in the Toposheet No. 57F/15 of the Survey of India, and is bounded within the latitudes of 14° 24'56.50" to 14° 25'10.70” and longitudes of 77° 50'30.40" to 77° 50'55.00". Figure 1. Regional Map of Project Area The area is regionally underlain by weathered and massive granite gneisses, and is distinguished by hilly topography, with gentle slope towards the Chitravathi River (Figure 1). The general elevation around the mining site area is around 364 m above mean sea level (amsl), with medium range hills of 500 - 625 m amsl occurring towards south. The area around the project site constitute dissected, undulating and rolling topography with erosional landscape covered by a layer of red loamy granitic soil of varied thickness. The undulating terrain is punctuated by granite hillocks, inselbergs, mounds, tors, dykes, etc. The main mining area is located on a medium NWW-SEE ranging linear hill with an elevation of 360 to 490 m amsl with a radial slope. The low lying area around the hill is intervened by and drained by minor ephemeral streams and streamlets. Since it is a barren land it does not have any vegetation or trees except some scattered thorny scrub on the slopes of the area. Figure 2. Enlarged Picture of Site Location 2 CLIMATE & RAINFALL The average annual rainfall of the Anantapur district is 535 mm, which ranges from nil rainfall in February and March to 129 mm in September. The months of September and October are the wettest months of the year. The mean seasonal rainfall distribution is 316 mm during southwest monsoon (June- September) 146 mm during northeast monsoon (Oct-Dec), 1 mm rainfall during winter (Jan-Feb) and 72 mm during summer (March-May). The percentage distribution of rainfall season wise is 58.7% in southwest monsoon, 27.6% in northeast monsoon, 0.21 percentages in winter and 13.5% in summer (CGWB, 2013). Highest temperature of 44° C was recorded in this area during the month of May and the lowest temperature of 14°C was recorded in the month of January. During the year 2010-2011 the rainfall in this is about 664.4mm (Mining Plan, 2015). The annual average maximum, minimum and mean temperature of the area for the years from 1969 to 2004 was found to be 32.71°C, 21.63°C and 27.17°C respectively (CWC 1999). In general, humidity is high during the monsoon period and moderate during non-monsoon period. The relative humidity in the catchment of Pennar ranges from 21% to 84%. Maximum relative humidity is observed during the month of October which is around 75%, and maximum wind velocity of 18.9 km/hour has been reported in the month of July. Due to arid climate, evapotranspiration takes place at a high rate with a value nearly of 200 mm at Anantapur district during May (CWC, 2014). 3 DRAINAGE The area forms part of the Chitravathi River Basin, and the Chitravathi River located 5.50 km north of the mining site (Figures 1 to 3). Major part of the pediplain in the Chitravathi catchment area is dissected by ephemeral streams and streamlets flowing in north and northeasterly directions. Some small and medium size lakes are situated along the topographic gradients, and most of which are connected by small ephemeral nallahs (streamlets). Other than these many small ponds and lakes are situated around the study area. These lakes receive seasonal flows, otherwise mostly remain dry. The area is regionally characterised by dendritic pattern of drainage, with a general slope towards Chitravathi River. The percolation tanks and water bodies in the area are either dry or gradually getting reduced over the years with the slowing down of inflows, and erratic rain fall. Figure 3. Topographical Map depicting 10 km Radius Area 4 GEOLOGY The area is underlain by various geological formations ranging in Age from Archaean to Recent, and underlain by the granites, gneisses and schists of Archaean and Dharwar Supergroup. Alluvium is restricted along the Chitravathi River and its stream courses. The geology of the study area is shown in the Anantapur District map (Figure 4). Mining Site Figure 4. Geological Map of the Anantapur District 4.1 STRATIGRAPHY The broad geological classification of the study area is given below: Table 1. Archaean Stratigraphic Succession of the area Geological Formation Lithology Age Archaean Younger Intrusive Rocks Quartz reefs, basic dykes of dolerites, pegmatites, and quartz veins, pink granite and other ultra-basics. Dharwar Super Group Granites, granodiorites, Sericite, chlorite, and hornblende schists and granulites. Peninsular Gneissic Complex Grey granite, gneisses, and migmatite. Older Metamorphic Rocks Biotite schist, pyroxenite, and Amphibolite. 4.2 LITHOLOGY The major lithological units in the region are: 1). Grey series: coarse porphyritic grey granites, biotite granites and pyroxene granite. 2). Pink series: coarse porphyritic pink granite, fine to medium grained pink granite, coarse porphyritic pink alaskite, fine grained pink alaskite, white alaskite. 3). Dykes and veins: Dolerite dykes (both fine and coarse grained), Quartz veins and epidote veins 4). Enclaves: Fine grained 5). Migmatite zones: Inter mingling zones of pink and grey granites. Granitic rocks of the area form part of the Peninsular Gneissic Complex. Pink and Grey granites are the major rock types occurring in the area. Basic enclaves, aplite, pegmatite, epidote and quartz veins and dolerite dykes frequently traverse the area. The mining site is located about 21 km southwest of the southwestern arc of the Cuddapah Tectonic Basin situated near Parnapalli (Figure 1). Granites are intruded by quartz and dolerite dykes of several generations and are well exposed. These dykes form important structural feature controlling the movement of groundwater in the region. Joints are most commonly observed in the study area. Vertical joints act as conduits for transfer of water whereas as horizontal joints help to maintain the lateral continuity of the aquifer. The Peninsular rocks occurring as Pink and Grey granites covers the major part of the area. The variations in pink and grey granites are mainly due to mineralogical composition textural difference, coarse to medium grained, fabric, and enclosures. The difference in the colour of the two granites could be due to the difference is the parental material, which was subjected to process of granitization. Some petrologists opined that both grey and pink granites are metasomatic in origin. The grey granites were formed by granitization of parental metasediments like quartz mica schists and related rocks. The pink granites were supposed to have formed along shear zones in grey granites by potash metasomatism. The major contrast is found that the grey granites are generally prone to weathering while pink masses are less resistant. Local Geology The granite hill range around the mining site is having general trend of NE-SW (northeast – southwest) with low to moderate southeast (SE) dip. These granites are traversed by thick fracture fillings of quartz veins traversing over few meters to kilometers in length, with 50 to 70 m width, and having shape in a tabular to lensoloidal form. The quartz of the subject area is a tabular body within the granitic terrain. The quartz vein is trending NWW-SEE almost occupying the north and central part of the applied area. The length of quartz vein is about 536 m. The width of the vein is about 55-68 m. The quartz is exposed to a maximum thickness of 2-3 m or to an average thickness of 2.5 m above the ground level along the strike direction. The country rock (granite) is exposed at lower reaches in the area. Quartz occurs in this area is a semi glassy variety. It is fine grained material. It shows white and light yellow colour. At some places it appears in honey colour due to impurities (Mining Plan, 2015). 5 HYDROGEOLOGY Ground water occurrence, movement and recharge to aquifers are controlled by degree of weathering, fracture pattern, geomorphological setup and rainfall. Granites and Gneisses of peninsular gneissic group constitute major aquifers in the area. Ground water occurs in phreatic conditions in the weathered zone and under semi confined to confined conditions in fractured and jointed rock formations. The ground water yields generally range from < 1.0 lps to 3.0 lps (liters per second), with some instances of up to 5.0 lps. Central Ground Water Board has carried out ground water exploration in the district to depths ranging from 38 to 305 m bgl (below ground level). The exploratory drilling data reveals that fracture zones were encountered at various depths. Deep fractures were also encountered down to 200 m. However, the potential fractures were encountered between 40 and 100 m depths. The cumulative yield of fracture zones vary from 0.4 to 15.7 lps. However, the yield of bore wells were found to be between 1 to 3 lps. The E-W, N-S and NNW-SSE fractures are tensile fractures and the bore wells drilled close to these fractures yielded 1 to 5 lps. The NE-SW, NNE-SSW fractures are shallow in nature and yield between 0.2 to 6.0 lps. Transmissivity generally ranges from 10 to < 100 m2/day and storativity varies from 2.8*10-3 to 8.4*10-4 (CGWB, 2013).

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