India: Govt allows minerals discovered in non-mining activities to be disposed of

In a move towards improving "ease of doing business", the Centre has allowed minerals discovered in non-mining activities to be disposed of. The discovery of minerals while for example constructing roads or canals would cause a bit of a regulatory hurdle in the absence of a lease.

Using its powers under India's mining act, the Centre is granting right of pre-emption to respective state governments that may either auction any such incidental mineral (except for minerals prescribed under Part A and Part B of the first schedule of the act) or give it to a state agency to consume or dispose of. The Ministry of Mines order, dated 1 June, is expected to hasten the development of infrastructure and other non-mining activities, an access road to a plant for example, in mineral bearing areas.

India's mineral block auctions showed a marked upturn in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) with successful bids more than doubling y-o-y. Madhya Pradesh led the competitive bidding route with 29 non-coal blocks allotted for auction last fiscal, followed by Chhattisgarh with 20 and Odisha with 10.

It may be mentioned here that the country has successfully auctioned off 267 mineral blocks since the Minerals Development & Regulation (MMDR) Act was amended in 2015, with the process gathering speed sharply in FY23, reveals data maintained with SteelMint.