Chandigarh: After having found “good values” of rare earth elements in areas close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Ladakh during preliminary surveys, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) is now moving into the next stage of marking promising areas of their occurrence in the hitherto unexplored regions of the Himalayan frontier. According to GSI officials, surveys were undertaken recently near Hanle in south-eastern Ladakh as part of the GSI’s ongoing National Geochemical Programme (NGP) and the results were promising. A few weeks ago, a visiting parliamentary panel was also briefed in Srinagar about the prospect of mining rare earth elements in that region. The GSI is undertaking special thematic mapping of volcanic and ophiolite rocks in Ladakh. Rare earth elements are a group of 17 chemicals that are so named not because they are generally not found in abundance, but because their presence is widely dispersed in ores and rocks making it economically difficult to exploit their resources. Their applications include lasers, aerospace, mercury vapour lamps, high temperature superconductors, nuclear batteries, rare earth magnets, X-ray and other medical equipment, high refractive glass and special chemical agents. The project to map the rare earth element-bearing areas for future exploitation comes in the wake of the presence of uranium being detected in Ladakh. About four yeas ago, a geologist from Kumaon University, Nanital, claimed that a survey undertaken by him near Udmaru village in north-eastern Ladakh, about 30 km from Leh, found exceptionally high concentration of uranium in rocks. These rocks were analysed at a laboratory in Germany. The presence of uranium -- a key element of nuclear energy, both for war and peace, as well as rare earth elements has added a vital dimension to the geo-strategic signification of the Himalayan belt, which also houses one of the world’s largest and most important fresh water sources. It is well known that China is extensively mining uranium and other rare elements in Tibet, which is said to hold the world’s largest uranium deposits. A little after the 1962 debacle with China, there were some reports in the western Media that the Pamir region between the Soviet Central Asia and the Xinjiang (Sinkiang) providence in north-western China stretching into Ladakh is a major resource area for uranium and this was felt to be the reason behind the Sino-Indian clash over Ladakh. There were also reports that Nepal is gearing up to explore uranium along its border with Tibet. For India, uranium is vital as it is needed to fuel power generation reactor. At present, major areas for uranium mining in India are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Rajasthan has also cropped up on the uranium map of India.