The Indian government has asked domestic gold miners to actively explore joint venture with foreign companies to speed up exploration of the yellow metal within the country.

The request came from India's Minister of State for Mines T Subbarami Reddy. He said that the government is concerned over the huge bills for the gold that is imported to India.

Every year, India imports nearly 800 tonnes of gold worth Rs 55,000 crore (Rs 550 billion). "This is because we have not adequately explored our reserves," Reddy told reporters.

"The miners say explorations are big-budget exercises involving substantial risk capital. If that is so, they should explore tie-ups with their foreign counterparts and engage in more exploration," he said.

Reddy asked the miners to invest risk capital for fresh explorations and the mining community should contribute Rs 1,50,000 crore (Rs 1,500 billion) to the country's GDP every year.

He asked the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries to play a crucial role to facilitate investment in the mining sector. "FIMI must utilise the expertise of Geological Survey of India and the Indian Bureau of Mines in a big way to go in for fresh explorations," he pointed out.

The Minister said India has gold reserves worth Rs 6,00,000 crore (Rs 6,000 billion) and diamonds to the tune of 475 million tonnes.

"Within the next five years, we expect the country to invest about Rs 5,00,000 crore (Rs 5,000 billion) in the mining sector," Reddy said.

Recently, the Indian government headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed the issue of increasing investment in the mining sector.

Reddy said the government is preparing a mining policy that would immensely help exploration of new gold mining fields in the country.