By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JAN 25, 2021: TO expedite exploration activities, the Geological Survey of India (GSI), has embarked upon an "ambitious scheme" to complete some major national-level surveys by 2024, the Centre said today.

Out of the total mappable area of 3.146 million sq. km of the country, 3.119 million sq km or 99.14 per cent, has been covered by the Systematic Geological Mapping on 1:50,000 scale till December, 2020, the statement said.

GSI will adopt sophisticated deep penetration geophysical techniques such as Magneto-Telluric Surveys and Deep Seismic Reflection Surveys (DSRS) to define the crustal architecture for deep seated mineral targeting.

It has also initiated its flagship initiative of National Geoscience Data Repository (NGDR) for collation of all the geoscience data from GSI, other national organisations with geoscience as a focused activity, the State directorate of mines and geology, academic research community and private sector agencies.

"It aims at integrating the collected data by GSI and the similar organizations to build a repository on the digital medium entailing multiple user access," an official statement from the Ministry of Mines said, explaining stakeholders who participate in the mineral auctions would be able to access the NGDR.

The GSI is also in consultation with Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N) for developing the NGDR.

"Further, the planned Baseline Geoscience Data Collection campaign would also lead to a huge database, which will be the primary inputs for future exploration programs," it explained.

GSI plans to complete the National Geochemical Mapping (NGCM) programme by 2024 by extensively outsourcing it and working with private agencies. It is an all-India programme to cover the entire surface area of the country by geochemical sampling. A total of 11.72 lakh sq km was completed till March, 2020.

The NGCM work will generate distribution pattern of 62 elements for use in managing and developing natural resources, for application in various social fields and to search for hidden mineral deposits.

"The collation, assimilation and integration of the data generated from the projects and further interpretation will lead to identification of more areas for mineral exploration in the country. The increased investment in mineral exploration will build a robust pipeline of prospective mineral blocks for auction," said the ministry.

This will ensure long-term viability and continuity of mining in the country taking India towards its goal of becoming self-reliant, they stated.