With a view to make mineral block auctions more effective, the Union Mines Ministry will bring out proposed draft changes to the Mineral Auction Rules, 2015 in the month of August. Mines Secretary Arun Kumar has said that the Ministry is looking to remove small glitches in the rules highlighted by bidders and industry associations.
Talking on the issue of environment clearance, Kumar said that the Ministry has given a 20-page suggestion on how the environment can be protected and how rules can be made to expedite the mining process. Therefore, with a view to streamline the procedure, they have given those suggestions and, they will be taking it up with the Ministry of Environment so that simplification and cutting down on delay should be passed on.
The secretary further said that captive definition will stay for the existing leases but for auctions the government will see how it can tweak the system legally to allow for a certain percentage of the minerals to be traded as well. Meanwhile, so far 29 mineral blocks with an estimated total value of resources of Rs 1,56,746 crore have been auctioned in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.