Minister Narendra Tomar launches Operation Khanij Khoj by the Geological Survey to aid mineral exploration

KOLKATA: Union steel & mines minister Narendra Singh Tomar launched Geological Survey of India's (GSI) 'Operation Khanij Khoj' on Tuesday to step up mineral exploration activity across the country. As part of the overall initiative, efforts also underway to put some 6000 geological reports in digital format in the public domain soon mines ministry official said. Earlier, the minister received GSI report of 100 mineral blocks for regional exploration during 55th Central Geological Programming Board meeting in New Delhi.

The 100 blocks identified by the GSI may be taken up by the private explorers for regional exploration. The identified blocks include a total area of about 12,000 square km with prospects for base metals, gold, iron, tin/tungsten, strategic minerals, etc.

'Operation Khanij Khoj' is to be implemented in two selected areas in the country. It is focused on probing deep seated mineral deposits. The main components of this initiative would involve characterizing India’s geological cover, investigating lithospheric architecture, resolving 4D geodynamic and metallogenic evolution, as well as detecting and characterizing distal footprints of ore deposits.

“Mineral exploration in India needs to be done in a proactive and time-bound manner. The government has taken several decisions to enable this, and to build exploration capacity in the country," Tomar said addressing representatives from different states and institutions of the country at the meet. "Mineral exploration and mining are independent of each other.

While the former aims to build a comprehensive database of country’s mineral resources, mining of these resources can be done based on the requirement. Exploration, by its very nature, needs to be done well in advance and not when there is scarcity of minerals," he added.

Tomar congratulated GSI and CGPB for their initiative and contribution and exhorted them to take up more challenges and assured that Government will provide all possible support. During his address, secretary, mines Balvender Kumar said in a couple of months, 6000 geological reports will be put in public domain by GSI in digitized format, the work on which is already on. Selection of consultant for aerogeophysical survey is also in advanced stage and is likely to be completed in this month, he added.