KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – In one of the most aggressive moves yet to monetise natural resources, India’s Mines Ministry is pushing to auction 102 mineral blocks in the next six months of the current financial year.

The Ministry’s new thrust to complete the auctions by March 31, 2019 can be gauged from the fact that since 2015, when auction was made mandatory in the allocation of mineral assets to investors through the Mines, Minerals Development and Regulation Act (MMDRA), only 50 mineral blocks have been auctioned by respective state governments.

The blocks identified to be put up for auction are primarily located in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telengana and Assam, according to a report of the Ministry.

The mineral blocks include 42 limestone, 19 bauxite, 11 manganese ore, 8 copper, 6 iron-ore, 6 graphite, 3 zinc, 2 emerald, 2 gold, 1 iron-ore and manganese, 1 dolomite and limestone and 1 copper ore.

The government of Jharkhand will auction the highest number of blocks at 20, followed by 16 in Rajasthan and 13 each on Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

In tandem with the thrust to complete the auctions, the Mines Ministry is stepping on the gas to complete framing and unveiling of a new National Mineral Policy (NMP), aimed at incentivising miners to put in bids and at reducing gestation periods in developing the blocks, officials in the Ministry have said.

The NMP would also lay down the amendments to be made to MMDRA and offer a level playing field to investors, the officials added.

The government was also finalising the modalities of offering ‘bundled’ mandatory approvals to each successful bidder to cut down on the inevitable delays in securing approvals from various different government agencies, with investors facing the risk of cost and time overruns in project implementation.

On completion of an auction round, the successful bidder would be offered a composite prospecting and mining licence, which would be bundled with mandatory approvals pre-approved by the government for each of the mineral blocks.

Another vexed issue to be ironed out for the forthcoming round of auction would be the grant of nonexclusive reconnaissance permits (NREPs) which had been introduced through the MMDRA in 2015, but which had found few takers among mining investors.

Current NREP holders would have the right of first refusal at the auction for exploration leases which have discovered viable mineral resources.