The Union Mines Ministry has served the ultimatum on states to complete exploration by December this year, of the mineral leases expiring by March 31, 2020.
The ministry wants the states to initiate auctions of these lapsing blocks by July 2019. The early auctions are scheduled to avoid any shortfall in raw materials and also ensure a seamless transition in their ownership.
Data compiled by the Union mines ministry says 288 leases of iron ore, chromite, limestone, manganese, bauxite, graphite, limestone, garnet and kyanite are due to lapse by March 31, 2020. Goa has the most number of mines (160) headed for expiry. Next to Goa are Karnataka and Odisha with 45 and 31 mining leases respectively. Of the 288 mines, 59 are in a working state and the balance are non-working leases.
Mineral-bearingg states who dragged their feet on auctions of the lapsing blocks have been getting repeated reminders from the Union ministry of mines to prepare the roadmap for a transition. These states are scrambling to prepare blocks lapsing by March 31, 2020 for auctions. The urgency to ready the mineral blocks for auction stems from the recent notification of the Draft Mineral Concession and Development- MCDR (Amendment) Rules, 2018 by the Government of India.
The MCDR is proposed to be amended to draw the roadmap for exploration so that the blocks can be auctioned before their validity ends. This is being done to ensure that production of key minerals like iron ore, manganese and chromite is not severely impacted due to the expiry of the leases.
The operative mines due to lapse by March 2020 are made up mostly by iron ore mines. Together, thesenon-captive ironn ore mines have an approved annual capacity totaling 85 million tonnes (mt) of which Odisha alone accounts for 66 mt. In toto, Odisha has 31 mines heading for expiry, 24 of them being operative mines. Out of the 24 mines, exploration activity has been completed for six mines and 15 others have submitted their revised mining plans to the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM). “As per the state government's assessment, G2 level exploration will be completed for all working mines by December 2018. In respect of the non-working mines, we will seek approval for conducting auctions under Section 18 A of the Mines and Minerals- Development & Regulation (MMDR) Act”, said a government official in the know.
Other states, too, are getting their act together to prepare the lapsing blocks for auctions. Karnataka, another key iron ore producer, has completed exploration for eight out of its 33 mines lapsing by March 2020. Jharkhand has five mines expiring by that date and it has given consent to start their exploration. Andhra Pradesh is prepared to auction its six lapsing mines by September next year. The Gujarat government has apprised the Union mines ministry that out of its 11 mines expiring by 2020, seven are eligible for auctions. The government there has identified an agency to complete exploration by December 2018.