Informist, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024

NEW DELHI – The government plans to begin auctioning offshore mineral blocks in the next 2-3 months. Around 10 such blocks are likely to be auctioned in the first phase, Coal and Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy said Thursday.

"India's exploration of critical minerals is going on in full swing," the minister said at the inauguration of the pavilion of the Ministry of Mines at the India International Trade Fair. "We have asked for approval from the Cabinet to begin offshore mining and are working on finalising the guidelines for it. There are several clearances required. The auction should begin in 2-3 months. We plan to auction about 10 blocks in the first phase."

The government had earlier announced the availability of several offshore blocks for mineral exploration and production. The move is aimed at boosting domestic mineral production and reducing reliance on imports. The blocks are spread across the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal and will include sand, lime mud, and polymetallic nodules.

"By exploring and exploiting these offshore mineral resources, India can reduce its dependence on imports and achieve self-sufficiency in critical minerals," Reddy said.

The government amended the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 2002, to provide an auction route to award production leases for offshore minerals. These minerals are located deep within the earth's crust and are more difficult to extract than onshore minerals.

The minister further said three stages of exploration of the lithium block in Jammu and Kashmir have been completed and work on the fourth stage has started. The government had earlier scrapped the auction of lithium mines in Jammu and Kashmir as fewer bidders than required showed up. Around 5.9 million tonnes of lithium reserves were found for the first time in the country in Jammu and Kashmir in 2023.

Lithium is the single most important critical mineral for energy transition, a fundamental component of lithium-ion batteries which power electric vehicles and battery energy storage systems.

With regard to the five lithium blocks that India acquired in Argentina early this year, he said exploration has begun in these mines and "after the exploration of these blocks, production will begin". End

Reported by Pallavi Singhal

Edited by Rajeev Pai

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2024. All rights reserved.