Centre allows notified private exploration agencies to participate in critical mineral blocks auction
The Hindu
Ministry of Mines launches new scheme to directly sanction exploration projects to NPEAs for critical and deep-seated minerals.
The Mines Ministry on December 15 said it has permitted notified private exploration agencies to participate in the auction of critical and deep-seated mineral blocks explored by them.
The development will attract bigger mining companies in the exploration arena and is likely to encourage junior mining companies from around the world to come to India and take up exploration projects with National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) funding.
The Ministry further said it has also launched a new scheme to directly sanction projects for the exploration of critical and deep-seated minerals to notified private exploration agencies (NPEAs). This new scheme will help bring new technologies in the field of exploration.
The decision to allow NPEAs to directly submit projects in Ministry of Mines will help cut delays in sanction of projects as well as fast-track execution of projects. The move aims at giving a fillip to exploration of critical and deep-seated minerals.
"Ministry of Mines has launched a new scheme to directly sanction exploration projects to NPEAs for critical and deep-seated minerals. Further, the Ministry has also allowed these NPEAs to bid for auction for mineral blocks explored by them which was not allowed earlier," an official statement said.
Recently, through an amendment in the MMDR Act, 24 minerals such as graphite and nickel were notified as critical and strategic minerals by Ministry of Mines.
The amendment gives the power to grant the mineral concession of these minerals to the Centre so that it can prioritise auction of these minerals.
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