The Government of India (GoI) is planning to amend the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 to encourage exploration of deep-seated minerals such as gold, silver, copper and zinc, according to a Times of India report.
The amendment proposes to insert the provision of an exploration licence in the law which will be granted through an auction for undertaking reconnaissance and prospecting operations.
The licence will also be granted only for deep-seated and critical minerals that will be specified in a new schedule to the Act. Such minerals include copper, tellurium, selenium, lead, zinc, cadmium, indium, gold, silver, diamond, rock phosphate, apatite, potash, and elements of the rare earth group, as well as critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, molybdenum, rhenium, tungsten, graphite, vanadium, nickel, tin, platinum group of elements, columbite, tantalite, lepidolite, scheelite and cassiterite.
This will be the fifth amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act since 2014, with earlier changes mandating e-auction for mineral resources and allowing extension of mining leases which were expiring.
India presently has about 688,000 square kilometres of obvious geological potential areas, of which 197,000 sq km of high potential area has been identified by the Geological Survey of India. It is estimated that only 1% of the global budget for mineral exploration is spent in India.
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished
The amendment proposes to insert the provision of an exploration licence in the law which will be granted through an auction for undertaking reconnaissance and prospecting operations.
The licence will also be granted only for deep-seated and critical minerals that will be specified in a new schedule to the Act. Such minerals include copper, tellurium, selenium, lead, zinc, cadmium, indium, gold, silver, diamond, rock phosphate, apatite, potash, and elements of the rare earth group, as well as critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, molybdenum, rhenium, tungsten, graphite, vanadium, nickel, tin, platinum group of elements, columbite, tantalite, lepidolite, scheelite and cassiterite.
This will be the fifth amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act since 2014, with earlier changes mandating e-auction for mineral resources and allowing extension of mining leases which were expiring.
India presently has about 688,000 square kilometres of obvious geological potential areas, of which 197,000 sq km of high potential area has been identified by the Geological Survey of India. It is estimated that only 1% of the global budget for mineral exploration is spent in India.
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished
