N Baijendra Kumar, IAS, CMD, NMDC inaugurated the Remote Sensing and GIS lab at NMDC ltd, Hyderabad on May 2. The guest of honour on the occasion was Dr Santanu Choudhury, distinguished scientist and director, National Remote Sensing Centre (ISRO), department of space, Government of lndia.
NMDC and NRSC (ISRO), department of space, Government of lndia joined hands through an MoU to promote space applications in exploration and other mining activities for “Satellite-based geological mapping and multidisciplinary exploration of iron, diamond and other mineral deposits”, which is a step forward towards Digital India as Space Technology provides real-time data for generation of digital maps.
NMDC is the first CPSE in Ministry of Steel which has signed MOU with ISRO for use of space technology in mineral exploration and mining and this has been highlighted as special achievement of Ministry of Steel. Several innovative methods were used by NMDC-ISRO for targeting diamond and iron bearing areas. Gravity and Magnetic data of ElGEN6C4 (NASA) Satellite was also used for identifying potential corridor for diamondiferous rocks in the Central Indian Diamond Province. Few potential iron ore blocks have also been identified in Madhya Pradesh using Cartosat-2 and Aster Data.
NRSC and NMDC have developed a mobile app to collect field data with location, field photo and catalogue to collect geological information and for viewing in Bhuvan Portal. This app is presently being used by NMDC in its Sidhi-Singrauli Iron ore Block and Chattarpur and Damoh Diamond Blocks for field data collection and has proved to be very useful.