New Delhi, July 01: TEXMiN, the Technology Innovation and Translation Research Park at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Airborne Geoscience International (AGI), India’s first technology aggregator in airborne geoscience technologies for exploration of critical & deep-seated minerals, to pioneer AI/ML-driven mineral prospectivity analysis and mineral target ranking systems, for the first time in India.
TEXMiN and AGI will work together to build proprietary AI-based systems, customized to Indian conditions, that will integrate and analyze disparate geoscience datasets (geological, geophysical, geochemical, GIS etc) with the mandate to generate high value exploration targets and ranking them in accordance with their prospectivity.
By combining airborne & ground geophysical data, geological inputs, geochemical samples and GIS elevation models with AI based machine learning, the partnership aims to reduce uncertainty in early-stage mineral exploration, accelerate target generation, and create a world class mineral prospectivity database in India, for the first time, not only enable more informed decision-making for explorers and policymakers, but to also attract technology and financial investments from international early stage explorers (also known as junior miners) who are responsible for more than 2/3rd of all new mineral discoveries reported worldwide.
The collaboration comes at a pivotal moment, when India is aiming to strengthen domestic critical mineral capabilities. The Government of India launched the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) in 2025 with an outlay of ₹16,300 crore, aiming to strengthen domestic exploration, secure supply chains, and build self-reliance across the mineral value chain. At the same time, India continues to face near-complete (70-100%) import dependence for key minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel.
The partnership also strongly aligns with India’s energy transition and net zero goals. Critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements are foundational to clean energy technologies, including batteries, solar modules, and wind turbines. Further, India’s quest to become “Atmanirbhar” and become a geopolitically stable global power shall forever remain incomplete without the country’s ability to explore, discover and control its own critical mineral resources.
This shift is already visible in policy prioritisation, with the Geological Survey of India’s 2025-26 field season allocating 25% of its investigations to critical minerals, signalling both the scale of opportunity and the need for advanced analytical capabilities to convert data into discoveries.
Prof. Dheeraj Kumar, Deputy Director, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad and Project Director, TEXMiN, said: “TEXMiN is focused on translating advanced research into field-ready technologies for the mining and mineral ecosystem. This collaboration with AGI reflects our commitment to bringing research into solutions with real-world impact. What makes this even more impactful is that AGI brings advanced airborne geoscience technologies and data interpretation capabilities, while TEXMiN contributes expertise in research, AI, and advanced mineral prospectivity modelling. Building on our ongoing work in the critical minerals domain, this partnership will be helpful for us to move beyond research outcomes and develop practical, field-deployable tools that can support faster, more informed exploration and contribute to India’s journey towards mineral self-reliance.”
Sudipto Mukerji, Managing Director, AGI, said: “AGI was founded on the belief that India’s geoscience data holds immense untapped value and should be used to drive discoveries, not just fill repositories. This partnership with TEXMiN brings together AGI’s geoscience capabilities and TEXMiN’s research and AI expertise to transform data into actionable exploration intelligence. For years, the focus has been on collecting standard data; the next chapter must be about identifying strategic exploration technologies for prioritizing discoveries. We see this collaboration as an important step towards accelerating critical mineral exploration, strengthening India’s resource security, and contributing significantly to the vision of both Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat.”
The TEXMiN -AGI partnership seeks to address a critical gap in the exploration value chain: strategic application of exploration technologies and its’ integration with legacy data: the analytical layer that turns survey data into actionable processes. By applying AI and machine learning to multiple datasets, the collaboration aims to improve the speed, consistency, and accuracy of target generation for critical and deep-seated minerals all across India.
India’s ambitions for Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India depend not only on manufacturing capabilities, but also on the ability to identify and responsibly develop the resources that underpin clean energy, water security, industrial growth, and strategic technologies.
By combining the best-in-class global exploration technologies, Indian geoscience expertise, AI capability, and institutional research strength, the AGI–TEXMiN MoU represents the first step towards building a state-of-the-art, data driven, mineral exploration intelligence, which shall become the bedrock for the development of the “Viksit Bharat” mission.