Auctions fail to get mine blocks running, only five leases inked in 5 years

Five years into the amendment of the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act and enunciation of Mineral Auction Rules in 2015, mining leases (ML) have been executed for only five mineral blocks.

What’s disquieting is that all are brownfield blocks and no virgin block has been opened up for mining yet.

This is in glaring contrast to the pace of mineral concessions awarded and MLs executed in the pre-auction regime. In its latest publication titled ‘Indian Mining: A Synopsis’, Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (Fimi) notes that before introduction of auctions to award mineral assets, 2754 MLs were executed between 2006 and 2010, most of which were greenfield blocks. Though the count dwindled in the period from 2010 to 2014, still 494 ML deeds were executed.