31st March, 2003
Ministry of Mines  


MECL SIGNS MOU WITH BHPMI TO EXPAND BUSINESS


A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed here today between the premier exploration agency the Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited (MECL), Nagpur, a public sector company under the Union Ministry of Mines and M/s. BHP Mineral India Private Limited (BHPMI), a member of BHP Billiton Group of Companies and diversified global resources group paving way for pooling up their resources for augmenting mineral exploration and development activities in India.

The MOU envisages that MECL with its 3 decades experiences in the field and state-of-the art technology will take up globally execution of drilling, geological, geophysical, geo-chemical, environmental and IT services. BHPMI will support the activities of MECL and provide every opportunity to secure and execute contracts, give assistance to MECL specialists to prepare proposals of contracts, obtain necessary clearance, manage and operate all reconnaissance and prospecting operations, train and acquaint MECL personnel in the latest technology and techniques and furnish necessary technical information to enable it for submission of viable tender proposals.

The MOU was signed by Shri Rajneesh Gupta, CMD, MECL and Shri Ciaran G.Halpin,Director, BHPMI in presence of Dr.A.K.Kundra, Secretary Mines, Government of India. Shri Gupta expressed full confidence that the MOU will benefit MECL globally in the field of mineral exploration and allied jobs. Shri Halpin said that association with MECL with its vast infrastructure, high degree of mobility and sound technical knowledge would help his company in a big way. Earlier an expert team of BHPMI visited MECL and had discussions with senior executives of the Company at Nagpur. They also visited IT Centre, Manufacturing Centre, Geophysical, Environmental and Remote Sensing Units and one of the exploration projects nearby to get them acquainted with capabilities of MECL.