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The Centre on Wednesday directed all states to expedite ongoing exploration projects, ensure faster approvals and improve coordination to significantly reduce exploration-to-auction timelines, a move aimed at bolstering the nation's critical minerals security amid global supply chain disruptions. Mines minister G Kishan Reddy also stressed the need to adopt advanced technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, drone-based surveys and modern beneficiation techniques, to increase efficiency and success rates in mineral discovery. The minister also stressed the greater inclusion of startups, private exploration agencies and innovation-driven institutions, in line with the vision of Startup India, to bring new ideas and cutting-edge solutions into the exploration ecosystem. Reddy chaired the 7th governing body meeting of the National Mineral Exploration & Development Trust (NMEDT), held here in the august presence of Minister of State for the Department ..
Over 1,000 residents in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district will be shifted to safer locations, following the incident of a "poisonous gas leak" from underground mines, officials said on Thursday. A woman allegedly died on Wednesday, while 12 people fell sick after carbon monoxide leaked from such mines in different places of Kenduadih Basti in the district, they said. The exact cause of the woman's death, however, is yet to be ascertained and it could only be confirmed after receiving the postmortem report, the officials said. Soon after the incident, the Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) started eviction of people from the danger zones, they said. The company also pasted notices on walls of houses in the locality, asking people to vacate at the earliest, an official said. BCCL's Putki-Balihati Colliery Area GM G C Saha told reporters that three ambulances have been kept on standy in the basti to deal with any emergency situation. The company is making arrangments to shift the residents to
A woman labourer has found eight diamonds, which could fetch her lakhs of rupees, at a mine in Madhya Pradesh's Panna district, an official said on Saturday. Rachna Goldar, a local resident in her 50s, found eight precious stones with a total weight of 2.53 carats, six of which are of high quality, the official said. Diamond expert Anupam Singh said, "The biggest diamond weighs 0.79 carat. Besides, two stones are off-colour." He said Goldar deposited the stones at the district diamond office, from where they will be put up for auction, and are likely to be worth several lakh rupees. Goldar, mother to three grown-up children, had taken a mining lease in the Hazara Mudda area and found the stones while digging. She expressed hope that the auction proceeds would improve her financial condition. In Panna, an eight-metre mining plot is leased for Rs 200 annually. Diamond auctions are held every three months with traders from across the country participating. The final auction price i