Garud Survey: Notified as Category A exploration agency

The Centre has notified Garud Survey Private Limited as a Category A exploration agency, according to the Ministry of Mines’ notification S.O. 5952(E), dated 29 October 2026. The notification appears in an issue of the Gazette of India dated 2 November 2026 and requires the company to follow the ministry’s guidelines for prospecting operations.

The ministry said the notification follows accreditation by the National Accreditation Board for Education and Training of the Quality Council of India, known as QCI-NABET. It takes effect on publication in the Official Gazette and remains valid for five years, or until the accreditation expires or is terminated, whichever comes first.

The notification recognises the company as an exploration agency; it does not identify a mineral block, award a project or sanction funding. Its practical scope depends on the Category A classification and the operating conditions in the ministry’s guidelines dated 12 August 2021, which the notification expressly requires Garud Survey to follow.

What Category A covers

The ministry’s 2021 guidelines distinguish exploration agencies by the types of mineral deposits they may investigate. Category A has a broader scope than Category B, covering all the deposit types listed for Category B as well as additional geological formations.

Under those guidelines, both categories cover bedded, stratiform and tabular deposits, broadly describing deposits arranged in layers or sheet-like formations. Both also cover float and placer deposits, which involve mineral material displaced from its original source.

Category A additionally covers lenticular composite veins; gemstone and rare-metal pegmatite, reefs and veins or pipes; and deep-seated deposits, according to the guidelines. These are classifications of the formations an agency may explore, rather than an allocation of particular mineral resources to Garud Survey.

The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 defines prospecting as operations undertaken to explore, locate or prove a mineral deposit. This is distinct from mining operations, which the Act defines by their purpose of extracting minerals. Garud Survey’s notification concerns the former activity.

The ministry issued the notification under the second proviso to Section 4(1) of the Act. That provision allows the Centre to notify entities, including private entities, to undertake prospecting subject to conditions specified by the government.

Written permission remains necessary

Recognition as an exploration agency is not unrestricted permission to begin work at any location. The ministry’s 2021 guidelines require an agency to obtain written permission before starting prospecting, and limit its operations to the area and minerals covered by that permission.

The guidelines identify the relevant permission-giver according to the arrangement. It is the Central Government where exploration is sanctioned by the Centre, the state government where it sanctions exploration, or the holder of the prospecting licence, composite licence or mining lease for the area.

A composite licence combines permission for prospecting with a subsequent mining lease, according to the Act’s definition. Garud Survey’s agency notification does not itself grant such a concession.

The guidelines also require prospecting to comply with the Minerals (Evidence of Mineral Contents) Rules, 2015, the Mineral Conservation and Development Rules, 2017 and other applicable law. These requirements concern how exploration is undertaken and documented; they remain separate from the company’s accreditation and notification.

The ministry’s accreditation process likewise separates technical assessment from government recognition. Under the 2021 guidelines, an accredited agency must apply to the ministry, which examines the application and may seek further information. Accreditation alone does not create a right to be notified.

Five-year term differs from the earlier guidelines

The five-year maximum in Garud Survey’s notification differs from the three-year period specified in the ministry’s original 2021 guidelines. A subsequent ministry amendment to those guidelines retained the three-year initial period while allowing an application for a further three-year extension after re-accreditation by QCI-NABET.

The Garud Survey notification explicitly states its own five-year term but does not explain the difference from that earlier framework. It also does not disclose the expiry date of the company’s accreditation. The notification therefore establishes a maximum duration, not an unconditional five-year authorisation.

The earlier guidelines provide additional grounds for the Centre to rescind an agency’s notification. These include breaches of the Act, rules, notification conditions or accreditation conditions; false or misleading information; suspension or termination of accreditation; and an evident conflict of interest.

Funding requires a separate process

The National Mineral Exploration Trust’s office memorandum dated 10 May 2022 provides background on how notified private agencies could be engaged for exploration projects. It said the 2021 amendments to the mining law empowered the Centre to notify private entities and made notified agencies eligible for trust funding under Section 9C(5).

The scheme attached to that memorandum described separate routes for project selection and funding. Under its agency-originated route, a notified private agency could identify an area using available geoscience data and submit an application to the state government. After in-principle approval, the agency would prepare an exploration proposal for examination and possible submission to the trust.

Under that 2022 arrangement, trust evaluation and approval preceded a funding sanction. Payments went to the state government, which arranged execution through the proposing agency and paid it for the work. The scheme also described state-originated projects, including selection of notified agencies through limited tender, and projects financed by state governments.

Those provisions describe the engagement framework set out in 2022, not a project awarded to Garud Survey by the new notification. The scheme expressly separated exploration approval and funding from rights to obtain a mineral concession. It also barred an agency from bidding for a concession over a block, or part of a block, that it had explored under the scheme.

For work undertaken under the guidelines cited in Garud Survey’s notification, reporting obligations continue beyond field operations. The ministry’s 2021 guidelines require a geological study report to be submitted to the state government, the Indian Bureau of Mines and the Geological Survey of India when prospecting is completed or abandoned, or when the agency’s notification ends, whichever occurs first.