The geological formation of this region belongs to the Archean-Proterozoic age. The geology of the A. Narrain mine consists of Archean formations locally termed “Dharwars” which contain rich and large iron ore deposits. The leasehold area forms part of the Chitradurga- Tumkur schist belt and part of a regional isoclinal fold. The strike direction of the ore body dips westerly at an angle of about 60 degrees to 70 degrees. Hematite is the principal ore mineral and limonite, goethite and magnetite constitute the associated minor minerals of the mine. The mineralized horizon extends over a length of about two km. The footwall comprised decomposed quartzite and phyllite, and the stratigraphy is cross cut by late dolerite dykes and sills which are manifested by pink clayey zones in the mine area.

Currently, the north and the south block of the A. Narrain mine have mechanized mining operations. The open-pit mines have a bench height of seven metres, haulage roads of 12 metres to 15 metres in width and an overall pit slope of less than 26 degrees.

The lateritic overburden is removed either by blasting or ripping/dozing, loaded onto and transported by 30-tonne trucks.

South Block
The pit in this block is running NW-SE direction. There are 20 nos. of benches with height of 7 m and avg width is around 10m. Out of these 20 benches, bottom most seven are in ore zone, four are in waste and the remaining nine benches are both ore and waste. The pit slope is maintained at <40 degrees.

North block
The pit in this block is running N-S. The top RL and RL of the pit is 946.41m and 905.43m respectively. There are six benches running along the strike of the ore zone. The parameters of the benches are very much in accordance with standards i.e. the height of benches maintained around 10m. The pit slope is maintained at <40 degrees. The length of the existing benches is varying from 100 to 350m. Out of these six benches, four are in ore and remaining two in both ore and waste.

The produced ore will be transported through 35 ton capacity dumpers to the Crushing/Screening plant to get the end products like calibrated lumps and fines. These products will be stacked in designated areas. The waste will be dumped through dumpers systematically in SE part of the lease where already waste dump is present.

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The A. Narrain mine is equipped with dry process facilities for processing all grades of ore.

The ore mined is processed at the mine’s processing facilities, which involves crushing and dry screening processes. The processed ore is then transported by road to the railway yard, for onward transport to customers in Karnataka, Goa and other places. Ore produced in Karnataka ranges from 56.0% to 60.0% iron content and comprises 82.0% fines and 18.0% lumps. The two processing plants at the A. Narrain mine have a combined capacity of 1,150 tonnes per hour.