AMENDMENT OF VARIOUS MINERAL RULES BY CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
After the historical Judgement of Supreme Court (SC) in 2012 on the allocation process of Coal blocks and the subsequent cancellation of 204 Coal Blocks allocated between 1990 and 2012 by UPA and NDA Governments to various Company, the allocation of Mineral Blocks through Auction Process were advised by SC. As a result, Govt. of India in 2015 amended the old Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act (MMDR), 1957 and the relevant clause of Auction were inserted in the amended Act. The Central government also implemented the Mineral (Auction) Rules, 2015; Minerals (Evidence of Mineral Contents) Rules, 2015; Mineral Concession Rules, 2017 and Mineral conservation and Development Rules, 2017. It was decided to allow the existing mines to work till 31st of March 2020 for non- Captive Mines and up to 31st March of 2030 for Captive Mines. All mines after this cutoff date will be re- allocated through auction process.
STATE GOVERNMENTS TO FORMULATE MINOR MINERAL RULES
In the meantime, the list of Major and Minor Minerals were also revised and most of the Major Minerals at that time were converted to Minor Minerals in the new List. So barring a few minerals, the states were made the Custodian and Policy maker for all important minerals. Stone Mining and the Sand Mining were already there in the List of Minor Minerals. Now keeping in view of irregularities in allocation processes and on Mineral and Environmental Conservation point of view, all State Governments were compelled to form their own Mineral Policy, Minor Mineral Rules and Auction Rules as per the provisions in MMDR. The Jharkhand State Sand Mining Policy, 2017 was notified in Gazette which empowered the Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation (JSMDC) as Nodal Agency to mine and sell the sand deposits located within the state. The enhancement of exchequer to the states was also envisaged.
EFFECT OF AMENDED MINERAL RULES IN JHARKHAND
In exercise of the powers conferred by section 15 of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (67 of 1957), Jharkhand, being the Mineral rich state, amended its Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 2004 on 2nd march 2017. Subsequently the Mineral Auction Rules, 2017 was notified on 6th of September, 2017. The other important Mineral Rules like Jharkhand State Sand Mining Policy, 2017, Jharkhand Minor Minerals (Evidence of Mineral Contents) Rules, 2018 were formed in accordance with changed situation. Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India also pressurized the State Govt. to initiate the auction process of the Minerals in State List. The officials of department of Mines and Geology of Jharkhand state were assigned the job of preparing the Minor Mineral Blocks on war footing and getting it notified for open auction. Though the state govt. officials had been successful in completing the auction process of few Major Mineral blocks of Iron ore, Gold, Limestone, Graphite etc., the processes leading to advertisement of Minor Mineral blocks auction took relatively longer and inordinate time. The Blocks were prepared by Geology Directorate and were given to Mines Directorate for scrutinizing and publishing. MSTC Limited, Govt. of India was given the Contract for all Techno-Commercial dealing for auction process. Some other Agencies were also involved for fast auctioning process.
The auction was first notified in Nov – Dec 2018. The turnout of the Bidders was very poor in this auction even after extending the date for submission twice. The probable reason for poor response at that time was the high Tender Fee of INR 100000. The Investors, mostly with very small capital, were suspicious also on the lengthy and cumbersome process of Tender. Another genuine reason of the Investors hesitating to participate lies on the fact that the process to accord the Environmental Clearance (EC) has become very lengthy and time taking. They are also not used to these processes. The Government realized and then reduced the Tender Fee to INR 25000. The probable Bidders were contacted by officials of Mines Department and Pre Bid Conference was organized to encourage and motivate them, but the response again is still very low. The auction process of two blocks was completed successfully and recently the Letter of Intent (LOI) has been handed over to them.
Now the auction process again has been started for 22 such Minor Mineral Blocks and the extended date has been announced for participating in the process. The Blocks are spread over 11 districts of Jharkhand with a total Geological Reserve of 173 Million Metric Tonnes varying in area from less than 1 hectare to more than 35 hectares. The date for completing the entire process has now been extended to 3rd week of June.
Slowly the Investors in this field are realizing that the auction is the only process to get the Mineral Block whether Major or Minor.
