The National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with the Geological Survey of India for sharing of aero-geophysical data (magnetic) for mineral exploration in Madhya Pradesh, adding one more milestones in the field of mineral exploration.

The signing of this MoA with the GSI will be a historic step for the country as the processed data may provide clues of hidden deposits, the NMDC said in a press release.

The MoA was signed by M. Mahadevan, Executive Director (RP&S) on behalf of the NMDC and Dayanand, DDG and HoD, AMSE, GSI in the presence of P.K.Satpathy, Director (Production);  T.R.K. Rao, Director (Commercial), NMDC and senior officials of NMDC, GSI, NRSC-ISRO, NGRI and Osmania University, Hyderabad.

With its expert team of geologists, the NMDC was identified as a nodal agency by ministry of Mines for specialized mineral exploration works.

The data procured from part of ‘obvious geological potential (OGP Block-2)’ in Madhya Pradesh will be processed jointly by the NMDC-Centre of Exploration Geophysics, Osmania University, Hyderabad for obtaining more diamondiferous areas/targets in the 18 diamondiferous blocks allocated to the NMDC through Gazette by GOMP.

All the Aero-Magnetic anomaly maps would be generated by the NMDC-CEG by using Geosoft. Oasis Montage Software will be used for Kimberlite search by the NMDC.

The NMDC has already identified 45 target areas for drilling for diamondiferous kimberlites in Madhya Pradesh.

The NMDC has also identified iron bearing areas in Sidhi- Singrauli Block in MP. Recently, the NRSC and  the NMDC have developed a mobile app to collect field data with location and field photo and catalogue to collect geological information and for viewing in “Bhuvan Portal”.