India’s Ministry of Mines is working on a proposal to impose a cap on mining lease areas for various minerals, government sources said on Tuesday, June 21.
A high-level committee appointed by the ministry has advocated imposing such a cap on mining lease areas, varying from state to state, to ensure participation of a greater number of players when such mining leases are put up for auction.
The committee has recommended imposing a cap of 20 square km in the case of iron ore mining leases for the eastern state of Odisha and a cap in the range of 10-25 square km in other states.
The move is a reversal of a ministry decision in 2019 wherein it had increased the mining lease area cap to 58 square km in Odisha, 75 square km in Jharkhand and 50 square km in Chhattisgarh.
“Allowing acquisition of disproportionately large mineral bearing areas will defeat the present system of the auctioning of mineral concessions through a fair and transparent mechanism. There is need to fix the area limits rationally to ensure that there is a fair and equitable chance for allocation of natural resources for the common good,” the ministry note said.