KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – India’s Mines Ministry has set an ambitious target of doubling mineral production by 2020, but dichotomously, about 288 noncoal mining projects are still hanging fire and drilling by exploration agencies is falling short of targets.

According to government data released last month, of these 288 projects, 94 have not made any headway as companies have not submitted required documents, 110 projects are still awaiting environmental approvals from federal and provincial governments and 63 are yet to get the go-ahead from provincial governments.

A senior official in the Mines Ministry says that several rounds of consultations have been held between the Ministry and representatives of provincial governments and that the Ministry has issued a directive to each mineral-bearing province to establish an internal monitoring authority as a single point of clearance for all pending mining projects.

While the number of pending projects has decreased from 318 in May, to 288, the effectiveness of the resolution process is still to reach optimal level, the official says.

One of the primary reasons for these projects getting into a logjam is that they fall in the cusp between old and new mining legislation. The 288 mining projects were all conceived and mining leases were supposed to have been granted, on discretionary basis. This was before the promulgation of the Mines, Minerals Development and Regulation Act 2015, which made auction mandatory for the granting of mining leases.

However, the new legislation provides that all projects that received sanction prior to January 2015 can be granted mining leases on a discretionary basis, but that such leases have to be completed by January 2017.

A government official notes that time is running out for these projects to receive mining leases before the deadline, unless the issues holding them back are resolved over the next five months.

The logjam and approaching deadline to get them going present a challenge in the face of the ambitious targets for the mining industry, following the insufficient attention paid to legacy issues, the official adds.

The Mines Ministry has announced an action plan to double mineral production volume by 2020 and thereby double its contribution to gross domestic product to 2%.

However, this will entail achieving a yearly growth rate of 20% to 22% by the mining industry. In 2015/16, India recorded a 9% growth in mining with noncoal mineral production at 395-million tons.

Besides legacy issues and pending projects, portents of future projects and mining sector growth are not too positive, considering tardy exploration and drilling record in the country.

According to information available from the Mines Ministry, the Geological Survey of India was able to achieve drilling of 102 815 m during 2015/16 against a target of 121 286 m.