Minister for Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi has told CNBC TV18 that over 150 blocks have been auctioned in the past 1.5 years, and the Mines Ministry is aiming to auction 500 mines by 2025, which will include rare earth elements (REEs) and precious minerals.
Joshi said that Lithium exploration is at a very initial stage at G3 level as of now, and the government has asked for G2 level auctions to be conducted, even as the auction process is underway for reports by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) handed over to states.
For the field season 2023-24, GSI has taken up 53 projects on exploration of REEs across various states, 196 projects on metallic minerals and 76 projects on non-metallic minerals. On the REEs discovered by the GSI, he said that 87 mines are already working and exploration has been fast-tracked.
In the last 3 years, GSI has augmented various metallic and non-metallic minerals like Niobium at Ambadungar in Gujarat; Potash at Nagaur-Ganganagar basin in Rajasthan; copper at Adash in Odisha, Machanur in Karnataka & Dariba in Rajasthan and limestone deposits at East Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya.
The Ministry of Mines had reported FY 2022-23 as landmark year in mineral auctions with 105 auctions of mineral blocks (ML-53, CL-52). This included auctions for mining leases as well as composite licenses for all categories of minerals, including low-value minerals, medium-value minerals, high-value minerals, critical minerals, and precious metals and stones.
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Among the minerals auctioned in FY 2022-23, 33 auctions were witnessed for iron ore, followed by 20 auctions for Limestone, 20 for Manganese and 14 blocks for Bauxite, 11 of which were of metallurgical grade.
In FY 2022-23, Chhattisgarh had successfully auctioned two blocks of Nickel and Chromium, and associated Platinum Group of Elements, as well as two blocks of Graphite. Uttar Pradesh had successfully auctioned 3 phosphorite blocks, a fertilizer mineral. Rock Phosphate and Phosphorite are instrumental in production of fertilizers.
(Edited by : Pradeep John)
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