Minister of Mines (Independent Charge), Shri Dinsha J. Patel informed Lok Sabha today in a written reply that Geological Survey of India (GSI) has found presence of Platinum Group of Elements (PGE) in Tamil Nadu, Odisha and other parts of the country, such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Manipur and Nagaland.  The exploration carried out so far by GSI has resulted in identification of the following four major PGE prospects in the country:

(i)             Baula Nausahi –  Odisha       –  14.20 million tones of PGE ore

(ii)            Hanumalpura  –   Karnataka  –    4.5 million tones PGE ore

(iii)           Sittampundi    --   Tamil Nadu –   0.70 million tones of PGE ore

(iv)          Mettuppalaiyam - Tamil Nadu –   0.38 million tones of PGE ore

            Shri Patel further informed that GSI has taken steps to find out more quantity of PGE in other parts of the country which inter-alia includes: (i) to undertake state of art baseline data (ii) to explore minerals having poor resource cum reserve base like PGE in locales of favourable geological milieu (iii) to augment existing resource position with special emphasis on deficient and scarce minerals like PGE through continuous integrated multi-disciplinary exploration (iv) to delineate new target areas through syntheses of multi-disciplinary earth science data in vast tract of areas, for which potential is yet to be established.

             GSI has given emphasis on investigation of PGE in the country and during Field Season 2006-07 to 2010-12, GSI has carried out investigation  for PGE in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.   

SKS