The process of drafting the Mineral Concession Rules (MCR) under the new Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 2015, will be completed by April this year, and circulated to all States, said Union Minister for Steel and Mines Narendra Singh Tomar.
He told reporters here on Friday that the process of draft rules and regulations, under which the mining sector will be governed, had begun. “Once the rules are sent to States, they can go ahead with the auction of mineral assets in their respective States, probably by end of May or early June,” said the Minister.
Mr. Tomar reviewed the performance of KIOCL, which is an undertaking of the Ministry of Steel, and said the Ministry would define the procedure for conducting auction of mineral assets and State governments will have to abide by those procedures.
He pointed out that the new MMDR Act, 2015, reserved mineral assets to public sector companies under Section 17 a 2 (A), and under this section, companies like KIOCL are expected to benefit. He said he had urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to allocate mining lease to KIOCL.
Mr. Tomar said his Ministry had notified public sector companies such as NMDC, KIOCL, RINL, SAIL and MOIL to conduct mineral exploration, which was till now restricted to MECL (Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd.) alone. He added that the government was keen to see that at least Rs. 250 crore is spent for exploration of new mineral areas in the country. “We have seen exploration of mineral reserves in only 1 per cent of the mineral-bearing areas in the country,” he said.
