The principal mandate of the organisation is to carry out geological exploration and discover mineral deposits required for nuclear power programme of India.

AMD started functioning from New Delhi on 10 August 1948 as ‘Rare Minerals Survey Unit'.

Wadia, FRS, a doyen among Indian geologists guided the organisation from its inception to 1970 as Geological Adviser to Government of India.

AMD over the past five decades has been instrumental in locating Uranium resources in Singhbhum Shear Zone, Jharkhand; KPM (Domiasiat), Wahkut, Wahkyn, Meghalaya; Lambapur - Chitrial, Peddagattu, Telangana; Tummalapalle, Andhra Pradesh; Gogi, Karnataka and Rohil, Rajasthan.

AMD also has established vast resources of thorium in the coastal tracts of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.