During the first years of its activity, the Institute of Applied Mineralogy focused special attention on Central Asia. During the 1920s and 1930s, its primary goal was to find rare and critically needed mineral resources for the growing Soviet industry. The institute explored and estimated many deposits that together established the natural resource foundation for the national economy: Tuia-Muiun, Gaurdak, Shor-Su, Khaidarkan, Cheleken, Kara-Bogaz-Gol, and many others. The institute developed the complex method of exploration that was used at all of the locations where the institute’s geological parties worked.