Over 400 mineral development projects in GSI's roadmap for 2025-26

The Geological Survey of India on Sunday said it has charted an extensive roadmap for the 2025-26 field season with around 1,065 scientific programmes, including 402 mineral development projects and a 16-per cent jump in the number of critical mineral initiatives.

Within exploration activities, a significant focus has been placed on critical mineral exploration, with 227 dedicated projects targeting strategically important mineral commodities such as graphite, lithium and vanadium, the surveyor said in a statement.

The GSI said it would spend Rs 300 crore on critical mineral exploration and investigation during the field season.

"For the upcoming year 2025-26, GSI has formulated about 1,065 scientific programmes, which include 402 mineral development projects that have the potential to generate auctionable mineral blocks in the near future," it said.

The Kolkata-headquartered GSI will also take up 167 mineral discovery projects having the potential to create promising areas for future exploration in the G4 stage, the statement said.

"A significant focus has been placed on critical mineral exploration... marking a 16 per cent increase compared to the previous year. The field season programme of GSI for FS 2025-26 includes 25 per cent of investigations on critical minerals, that entails out of the total budget of GSI, about 300 crore will be spent on critical mineral exploration and investigation," it said.

The proposed activities of the GSI for the ensuing field season were placed before the Central Geological Programming Board meeting, held in Odisha's Bhubaneswar on Sunday.

The GSI has outlined 141 projects under the natural hazard studies, public good geoscience and fundamental geoscience for 2025-26.

These include projects on landslides, geotechnical studies, glaciology research, climate change and environmental studies, as well as initiatives in fundamental geoscience, the statement added.