Indian built HAL Dhruv helicopter got a new role as an aerial mineral exploration and mapping platform on Jan 22, when Mr. Dinsha Patel,...
Indian built HAL Dhruv helicopter got a new role as an aerial mineral exploration and mapping platform on Jan 22, when Mr. Dinsha Patel, the Minister of Mines dedicated custom-made Advanced Light Helicopter-Dhruv named Garuda Vasudha to the nation.
India has now become the seventh country in the world to have a dedicated heliborne survey system.
The geo-system integrated ALH Dhruv is tasked for geological and geophysical exploration and mapping, environmental and nuclear surveillance, mineral, oil and gas exploration. The helo is fitted with a Heli-borne Geophysical Survey System (HGSS) comprising four Canadian built aerogeophysical sensors, namely Time Domain Electromagnetic, Magnetic, Spectrometric and Gravimetric along with Data Acquisition Systems. The installation and integration of the sensors were carried out by HAL.
Dhruv will survey areas to detect presence of rare earth minerals such as gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, cobalt, uranium, thorium, diamond, coal, petroleum, water, platinum, chromate, manganese and iron upto a depth of 300m. Presently India dependents on manual surveying or ground based vehicle surveying or by fast moving aircraft.
The survey will help geophysicists in data acquisition, processing and interpretation followed by geologists to carry out integration of geological and remote sensing data for understanding the sub-surface geology and regional tectonic set-up to help in geological mapping and identification of target blocks for mineral prospecting.
The twin engined ALH is a multi-role, multi-mission helicopter in 5.5 ton class, fully designed and developed by HAL, for military and civil role.
