Atomic Minerals Directorate (AMD) for Exploration and Research is the oldest unit of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). Under the Atomic Energy Act, passed by the Govt. of India on April 15, 1948 and followed by the creation of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) on August 10, 1948, AMD was also created on July 29, 1949 as ‘Rare Minerals Survey Unit’ with headquarter in New Delhi. It was renamed first as ‘Raw Materials Division’ and then as ‘Atomic Minerals Division’ in 1958. Its headquarter was later shifted to Hyderabad during 1974. In keeping with its growing stature as one of the country’s leading scientific organizations involved in multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted exploration-cum-analytical-cum research activities, the ‘Division’ was rechristened as a ‘Directorate’ on July 29, 1998 on the eve of its stepping into the ‘Golden Jubilee’ Year.

AMD commenced its operations on October 3, 1950 with a nucleus of 17 geoscientists which has grown to 2777 personnel (in all categories) on date. The principal mandate of the unit was to carry out geological exploration and discover mineral deposits required for Atomic Energy power programme of the country. Professor D.N. Wadia, FRS, a doyen among Indian geologists guided the exploration programme of the Directorate till 1970 as 'Geological Adviser' of the department. The unit saw Dr. P.K. Ghosh as its first Director appointed in 1957. Directors who have successfully steered the Directorate to its present glory are as follows

With the shifting of headquarters from Delhi to Hyderabad in 1974, activities of the directorate were spread out by opening new regional centers at Shillong (North Eastern Region), Hyderabad (South Central Region) and Jaipur (Western Region) in addition to the four already existing centres at New Delhi (Northern Region), Bangalore (Southern Region), Calcutta/ Jamshedpur (Eastern Region) and Nagpur (Central Region), and equipping various laboratories at headquarters with the state of the art instruments.