National Mineral Policy 2006 - Department of Mines

only 73,000 sq. km has been completed. Even if the general geological environment of onlyScheduled minerals, estimated at about 571,040 sq. km, is considered, proper reconnaissanceor regional exploration up to P2 level of only 8–13 per cent has been done. Even thisnegligible work is of low quality in the modern day context as it is based on outdatedtechnology. Gold search data, for example, is based on 20 parts per billion (ppb) whiletechnologies today look for 2–5 ppb. In most cases, detailed exploration targets have beendecided simply on the basis of geological mapping, evidence of ancient working, and surfacemanifestations. Annexure 1 shows the status of GSI activities in mineral exploration currentlyand the future scenario.1.14 While Australia spends, on average, about US$ 500 million per annum on survey andexploration and Latin America spends about US$ 700 million per annum, India, which has ageological setting identical to both these regions, spends, on average, only US$ 5 million onpromotional exploration, mainly through GSI, and a major part of this is spent on coal.Canada witnessed the largest expenditure on exploration with 19 per cent of the total worldexpenditure in 2005, followed by Australia with 13 per cent and the US with 8 per cent.While South America accounted for 23 per cent of the global exploration expenditure,followed by Africa (17 per cent), India accounted for less than 1 per cent of the globalexploration expenditure. In the last 50 years, the total amount spent by GSI on mineral searchis about Rs 500 crore only, and of this, as much as Rs 350 crore has been spent on looking forcoal deposits. Experience in other parts of the world has shown that reserves can increasesignificantly with additional exploration and beneficiation driven by state-of-the-arttechnology. Australia’s known iron ore resources increased hundred-fold in 40 years, fromaround 400 million tonnes in 1966 to over 40 billion tonnes by 2005, after having extractedover 3 billion tonnes in the interregnum. Given the fact that in India, so far no majorinvestment has taken place in prospecting (regional exploration and detailed exploration), thepotential for attracting such investment is very high.1.15 The FDI policy announced in February 2000 was taken as a great opportunity forsurvey and exploration by global mining companies, both majors and juniors, and manyforeign companies put in their applications for RPs and PLs. As a result, until July 2005, 65PLs, covering an area of 90,143 sq. km, and 196 RPs, covering an area of 264,520 sq. km,were granted, mainly in the mineral-rich states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, andOrissa, but also in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. These concessions were11