KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – Indian government-owned and -operated mineral companies are stepping up exploration projects across the country as the government hopes it would help catalyse more private sector investment.

“The Indian government has put in place an efficient framework to attract private, domestic and foreign investment into mineral exploration in the country. But private investments in long gestation projects typically come in with a lag and, therefore, various government-owned entities are being prodded to take a lead,” an official in the Ministry of Mines said.

There has been a flurry of activity among provincial and federal government-owned mineral and mineral processing companies to announce exploration projects.

The government of the eastern Indian coastal province of Odisha had entered into a tripartite agreement with Ministry of Mines and Mineral Exploration Corporation of India to explore two coal blocks and, depending on the success, the Odisha government would earmark more mineral blocks for this new entity.

The largest iron-ore government miner, NMDC Limited, had tied up with the Indian Space Research Organisation to use space technology for exploration and other projects to gain access to remote sensing capabilities and to establish a Geographical Information System laboratory at the NMDC headquarters.

Geological Survey of India (GSI) has been allocated $530-million to undertake a national aero geophysical mapping programme and would shortly float a tender inviting domestic and international agencies with required technical abilities to undertake the project.

The Ministry of Mines’ attempt to push government companies to take up exploration projects came in the wake of missed targets despite various policy initiatives.

According to public data sources from GSI, only 102 815.96 m were drilled during 2015/16, against a target of 121 289.95 m for various minerals, including iron-ore, manganese and rare earths.

The official said that the New Mineral Policy, currently under development, would be unveiled over the next couple of months and that it would dispel some of the confusion over incentives that were available for private investors.

Based on the draft policy, the private mining companies had expressed reservations about the proposed provision that mineral exploration companies investing in exploration projects would not automatically gain any preferential rights to develop the block if it was able to establish economically viable resource in the block.