IGS attended the Government of India (Ministry of Mines) sponsored Mining, Exploration, Convention & Trade Show in Bangalore (Mining MAZMA, 2017), 14th – 16th September 2017 held in the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre. IGS is part of a joint-venture India- registered company known as IDPeX Pvt. Ltd. comprising Datacode, an Indian-registered geodata management consultancy, and software reseller and PGW, (Paterson, Grant & Watson Limited), a geophysical consultancy based in Toronto, along with IGS. IDPeX was well represented at the show having a prominent centre stage stand and also presented 3 papers entitled ‘Attracting Exploration Investment – The Pathway to Success’ by Peter Zawada (MD of IGS), ‘Understanding Airborne Geophysical Data (Acquisition, Processing, Interpretation and Application)‘ by Bill McCourt (Technical Director of IGS) and Stephen Reford (President of PGW) and ‘Promoting your Geodata to the World – Applications, Products and Services’ by S. Karunakar Rao (CEO of Datacode).
India’s exploration and mining sector is at a nascent stage of development and although contributing just 1.36% (2016/17) to the GDP of the country (net of oil and gas earnings), of which 0.7% is ascribed to coal and lignite, it is undergoing rapid transformation to expand its contribution to the nation. Reform of its Mining Code and Policy has seen important changes and further amendments are anticipated. The State Governments are expected to play an important role in attracting exploration investment. IGS is planning to expand its geodata, capacity building and mineral promotion services on the sub-continent both at a National and State level through the joint venture company of IDPeX.