A joint venture with CMDC, Govt. of Chhattisgarh

Gem-grade corundum,
mined in Bastar.

Chhattisgarh Corundum Mines Limited works the Kuchnoor lease in Dantewada — ruby and sapphire rough for the gem trade, and industrial corundum for abrasives and refractories. Every lot leaves the mine with its origin on record.

Lease held under Chhattisgarh mining rules · CMDC equity 33%

Kuchnoor · Dantewada
Six-ray · asterism
LotKCH-26/041 MaterialStar ruby, cabochon rough StatusGraded · uncertified
3.7 haKuchnoor
lease area
33%CMDC equity
in the venture
DantewadaDistrict
Bastar division
~14 tAssessed
reserves
1 TPARated production
capacity
4Further prospects
under study
Mohs 9Hardness
aluminium oxide

The venture

A state partner and a trade partner, on one lease.

CCML was formed so that Chhattisgarh's corundum could be worked to gem standard rather than sold as raw abrasive. The Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation brings the lease, statutory oversight and geological record. The private partner brings the sorting, cutting and buyer network that turns rough into a stone somebody wears.

  • Operated under CMDC's mining and environmental compliance framework.
  • Production, grading and dispatch recorded lot by lot.
  • Local hiring and lapidary training in the Dantewada belt.

Shareholding

33%67%
CMDC — Government of Chhattisgarh
Private partner — N.C. Nahar

Mineral

Corundum — aluminium oxide, Mohs 9

District

Dantewada, Bastar division, Chhattisgarh

Registered office

Raipur, Chhattisgarh

Leadership

Two signatures on every lot.

The venture answers to the state's mining administration and to the gem trade's working knowledge — the same balance the joint venture itself was built on.

Shri Vishnu Deo Sai

Hon'ble Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh

Shri Vishnu Deo Sai

Hon'ble Chief MinisterGovernment of Chhattisgarh

Shri Sourabh Singh

Chairman, CMDC

Shri Sourabh Singh

ChairmanChhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation Ltd.

Shri Rajat Bansal

Chairman, CCML

Shri Rajat Bansal

Managing DirectorChhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation Ltd.ChairmanChhattisgarh Corundum Mines Ltd.

Shri Kailash Chand Agrawal

Managing Director

Shri Kailash Chand Agrawal

Managing DirectorChhattisgarh Corundum Mines Ltd.

What comes out of the ground

One crystal, two markets.

Corundum is pleochroic — turn the crystal and it shows you a different colour. The business works the same way. Clear, well-coloured material goes to the gem trade; everything else has real value as one of the hardest industrial minerals available.

Ruby rough

Chromium-coloured corundum from the Kuchnoor lease, sorted by colour, clarity and expected yield before it leaves site.

Star ruby

Silk-bearing material cut as cabochon, where fine rutile needles produce the six-ray asterism under a single light.

Sapphire & fancy corundum

Blue and off-colour corundum recovered alongside ruby, offered as rough or preformed parcels.

Graded parcels

Mixed lots made up to a buyer's brief — size range, colour band and treatment status stated up front.

Leases and prospects

Kuchnoor is working. Four more are being read.

Request the geology note
Block
District / belt
Area
Reserves
Status
Kuchnoor
Dantewada3.7 ha~14 t
Operating · 1 TPA
Sonakukanar
Bastar divisionUnder survey
Prospect
Nagaras
Bastar divisionUnder survey
Prospect
Dhangole
Bastar divisionUnder survey
Prospect
Rallapalli
Bastar divisionUnder survey
Prospect

Reserve and capacity figures follow the CMDC corundum project record.

Rough to certified stone

Six stages, and a paper trail at each one.

The order matters: a stone that skips grading cannot be certified, and a stone without certification cannot be sold as origin-known Indian ruby. This is the route every lot takes.

01

Prospecting

Pitting, trenching and sampling across the pegmatite and schist contacts.

02

Extraction

Small-scale, low-impact working sized to the 3.7 ha lease and its rated capacity.

03

Sorting

Gem-quality material separated from industrial feed at the pit head, then weighed in.

04

Lapidary

Preforming, cabbing and faceting — silk-bearing rough is cut to bring up the star.

05

Certification

Independent gemological reporting on species, treatment status and origin.

06

Sale

Direct supply and tendered lots, dispatched with the lot record attached.

Provenance

The lot number is the point.

Buyers in Jaipur, Surat and Bangkok are asked harder questions about origin every year. Because CCML sits inside a state corporation's compliance structure, a stone's route from pit to invoice is already documented. We pass that record on rather than keeping it.

Each dispatched lot carries its block, extraction month, weight in and weight out, grading notes and treatment declaration.

Community & land

Small lease, small footprint.

A 3.7 hectare working is not an open-cast operation and is not run like one. Overburden is stockpiled for backfill, water use stays within the sanctioned draw, and the site is worked in phases so disturbed ground is rehabilitated as the face moves.

Hiring, contracting and lapidary training are directed to the surrounding Dantewada villages first.

Get in touch

Talk to the right desk.

Tell us the grade, the volume and the timeline. Gem enquiries are answered by the sorting floor, not a sales inbox.

Kuchnoor lease · Dantewada

Come and see the rough.

Site visits for serious buyers are arranged through the Raipur office, subject to district clearance.

Request a site visit