Amendments in mining rules to ensure raw material security: Steel Minister

Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday said that the recent amendments in mining rules by the Centre is an important step towards ensuring raw material security for domestic steel industry as the lease of 31 working iron ore mines is set to expire in March next year.

In a step towards ensuring raw material security and seamless renewal of mining leases allocated to the government companies, the Mines Ministry has amended the Minerals (Mining) by Government companies rules 2015, the steel ministry said in a statement.

"It has substituted "may, for reasons to be recorded" in rule 3, in sub-rule (2) and rule 4, in sub-rule (3) with "shall, for reasons to be recorded," the ministry said.

This implies that for all mining leases for minerals granted to government companies, the state government upon an application made to it in this regard by the government company at least 12 months prior to the expiry of the mining lease, shall extend the period of the mining lease for further period of up to twenty years at a time, it said.

Lauding the amendment, Pradhan said, "It is an important step towards ensuring raw material security for steel PSUs. This will also ensure price stabilisation of raw materials and will have positive effect on the secondary steel industry. We are committed to ensuring raw material security for the Indian steel industry."