Despite abundant mining opportunities, India?s mineral exploration budget stood below 0.5% of the total world budget of $10.7 billion in 2010, says a study.
The global mining industry witnessed new heights in 2008, with the exploration budget touching $12.6 billion. But due to the global financial turmoil, almost all the major mining companies had cut down their exploration budgets in 2009. The exploration expenditure for the 1,846 major companies had declined by 42% year-on-year to $7.3 billion in 2009. However, improved commodity prices and stable market conditions have prompted the global mining companies to increase their exploration budget again by 45% to $10.7 billion in 2010, a report by global consultancy and advisory firm Ernst & Young (EY) said.
The overall global exploration is dominated by 10 countries, accounting for a share of 69%. In 2010, Canada, which accounted for 19% of the global exploration budget, ranked first followed by Australia that accounted for 12%. The US bagged third place with 8% followed by Mexico at 6% while Peru and Chile contributed 5% each. China and Russia contributed 4% each while Russia and Argentina accounted for 3% each.
Talking to FE, Anjani K Agarwal, national leader, mining and metal sector of EY, said: ?India?s share in the global exploration budget is almost negligible as major regional prospecting and grass-root level field exploration in the country is carried out by the government bodies, which have very limited budget.? He said large private players are not coming forward as there is no guarantee that they will get permission for mining after exploration.
Although the country has comparatively low budget for exploration, some significant discoveries were made in the field of gold, diamond, limestone, iron ore and manganese in 2009-10.
Exploration in Karnataka?s Tumkur district has revealed a resource of 0.0995 million tonne of gold at a cut-off of 1 gram per tonne (g/t) and an average grade of 2.17 g/t. If the cut off is brought down to 0.5 g/t, the resource stands at 0.213 million tonne at an average grade of 1.45 g/t. Exploration in Banswara district in Rajasthan has increased the estimation of the precious metal by 1.62 million tonne in this area at a cut-off grade of 0.2g/t and an average grade of 0.5g/t.
The total inferred resource in this area stands at 43.73 million tonne with an average grade of 1.87g/t of gold. During this period, prospecting stage investigation continued for gold in Ranchi that revealed a total inferred resource of 3.10 million tonne with an average grade of 1.81g/t gold at a cut-off of 0.5g/t.
Two kimberlite bodies containing diamond have been located through mineral survey in Karnataka’s Raichur district while an estimated 2.128 million tonne of base metal resources with 0.4% copper were found in Mahendragarh district in Haryana.