New Delhi: As many as 309 mineral exploration projects with an estimated cost of Rs 2,100 crore have been approved by the National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) so far, an official statement said on Wednesday.

The information was shared in a meeting of the Consultative Committee for Ministries of Coal and Mines to review the functioning of the NMET.

Addressing the meeting, Union Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi said the Union government is extending substantial financial and technological assistance to state governments to further promote mineral exploration and make India self-reliant in mineral production, the statement issued by the Ministry of Mines said.

"It was informed that to boost mineral exploration, NMET has approved 309 projects with an estimated cost of Rs 2,100.14 crore for regional and detailed exploration in different parts of the country being carried out by various Notified Exploration Agencies and Notified Private Exploration Agencies (NEAs & NPEAs)," it said.

Of the 309 approved projects, 151 projects have been completed to date, while the rest are in progress, as per the statement.

Besides mineral exploration projects, NMET is also funding projects for generation of baseline geoscience data, and funding the development of the National Geoscience Data Repository (NGDR) Portal of GSI.

NMET was established by the Central Government to expedite mineral exploration in the country.

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