The Romanian Economy Ministry plans to draft a National Geological Program 2017 – 2020 to establish a national database of the country’s mineral resources, News.ro reported.

The program is part of a government decision for geological research of mineral resources. It is estimated to cost RON 24 million (EUR 5.34 million) between 2017 and 2020. Some RON 2 million (EUR 445,000) will be spent this year, and RON 5.5 million (EUR 1.23 million) yearly between 2018 and 2021.

“The geological research program needs to lead to a national database of mineral resources, clarify the perspectives of identifying new deposits, and lead to finishing geological works in areas which show perspectives of usable reserves,” according to the decision.

The overall purpose if the program is to “highlight new useful mineral resources under financially advantageous conditions.”

Some of the mineral resources that will be mapped include radioactive ore, coal, renewable energy resources such as geo-thermal waters, or useful non-metal mineral substances with important crude added value.

The Geological Program is being drafted in the wider context of the need to preserve the balance of natural geological systems. “It envisions the use, through research, of new perimeters of potentially usable resources, supporting the activity oriented towards the rational use of renewable mineral resources and the preservation of non-renewable ones,” according to the same document.

Activities included in the geological research works are drafting maps useful for geological activities, studies identifying resources of useful mineral substances, or establishing the research methods to ensure the complete and complex investigation of geological structures and resources.

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