Bengaluru: Atomic Minerals Directorate (AMD) for Exploration and Research, a constituency unit of the Department of Atomic Energy and Geological Survey of India, has clarified that AMD is the sole exploration agency which is exploring the area for spodumene and niobium-tantalum minerals from pegmatite gravels in Allapatna-Marlagalla sector in Srirangapatna taluk, Mandya district since 1979.
It has been reported in a section of media that the estimates of lithium metal have been quoted to be as high as 14,100 tonnes in a small patch of surveyed area in Mandya district of Southern Karnataka. However, the AMD would like to clarify that exploration efforts have so far established 1,600 tonnes lithium in inferred category (low level of confidence) in Allapatna-Marlagalla sector.
