Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The 63rd Central Geological Programming Board (CGPB) meeting was held under the chairmanship of VL Kantha Rao, secretary, Ministry of Mines here on Monday.
Rao urged the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and other agencies to increase the pace of exploration and emphasised on exploration of critical minerals.
He also highlighted the importance of scientific rigor in the mining sector and urged the state governments to be more aggressive in implementation of exploration projects through the National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) funding. He requested stakeholders to make use of geoscience data available on the National Geoscience Data Repository (NGDR) for a smooth exploration process.
The proposed annual programme for the ensuing field season year 2024-25 was placed before the Board for discussion.
A two-hour session was earmarked for the recently launched NGDR portal, to brief stakeholders about this cloud-based portal, that will host all pre-competitive baseline geological and mineral exploration data, making it available to all participants in the mineral and mining sectors.
Rao also inaugurated an exhibition on the theme ‘Mining and Beyond’, in which GSI, PSUs, DMFs, major mining companies, private exploration agencies, startups and the Madhya Pradesh government showcased their achievements. PSUs like Manganese Ore India Ltd. (MOIL), Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL), National Aluminum Company Ltd. (NALCO), Mineral Exploration Consultancy Ltd. (MECL) showcased their best practices and technical advancements.
Sanjay Lohiya, additional secretary, Ministry of Mines, Janardan Prasad, director general, GSI, senior functionaries of different ministries, state directorates of mining and geology, PSUs, representatives from private mining industry, mining associations and other stakeholders attended the meeting.
