India: "Exploration licence" for thrust to deep-seated and critical minerals

An amendment to India's mining act has been passed by the lower house of Parliament allowing for production of deep-seated and critical minerals.

With this amendment, the government hopes to woo junior miners who carry out early-stage exploration of deep-seated minerals like gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, nickel, cobalt, platinum group of minerals and diamonds worldwide but have largely stayed away from India.

Once explored the blocks will be auctioned, with the exploration agency receiving a share of auction premiums. The agency seeking the least of this share will win a "exploration licence" in auctions conducted by the central government. Six minerals - beryl, lithium, niobium, titanium, tantallium and zirconium - earlier reserved for the public sector for their use as atomic minerals but critical now for India's transition to cleaner energy, have been de-reserved and will be allowed to the private sector to exploit.

The Centre, by this amendment, takes on the right to conduct auctions of these critical minerals. Addressing a noisy Lok Sabha, Minister Pralhad Joshi said the Centre will "take the burden of the auction of critical minerals even as the revenue accrues to the state." His government's reforms since 2015 had not just changed the Indian economy but brought huge revenues to states, he said, citing Odisha's example. "In 2014 Odisha's revenue from mining was Rs 5,000 crore, today it is Rs 49,000 crore," said Joshi. On request from certain MPs, the government has decided to not privatise beach sand minerals for now.