From a small beginning as a purely advisory body, the IBM has emerged into a premier national organisation involved deeply into the various aspects of the mineral industry. The current functions of IBM include promoting conservation of mineral resources by way of inspection of mines, geological studies, scrutiny and approval of mining plans and mining schemes, conducting environmental studies and environment related activities, evolving technologies for upgradation of low grade ores and identifying avenues for their utilisation, preparation of feasibility reports for mining and beneficiation projects, preparation of minerals maps and National Mineral Inventory of minerals resources; providing technical consultancy services  to  mineral  industry and functioning as a data bank for mines and minerals, and preparing of technical and statistical publications.Headed by the Controller General, IBM has six technical divisions with its head quarters at Nagpur. There is a Modern Mineral Processing Laboratory and Pilot Plant established with the assistance of United Nations Development Programme at Nagpur. IBM has 4 Zonal Offices, 13 Regional Offices, 2 Regional Ore Dressing Laboratories and Pilot Plants spread over the Country. The IBM offices are located at Ajmer, Bangalore,  Bhubaneshwar,  Kolkata, Chennai, Dehradun, Goa, Guwahati, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Jabalpur, Raipur, Nagpur, Ranchi and Udaipur; and the Pilot plants & Ore Dressing Laboratories at Ajmer, Bangalore and Nagpur.