Incentives on anvil for mineral blocks: Mines Secretary

In a bid to attract private investors, the government will provide incentives for the exploration of 50-60 blocks bearing minerals like iron ore and limestone, a top official said today.
The private sector companies that succeed in locating minerals will get an incentive of 0.5 per cent of the resource value, Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar said here.
"We have also carved out certain exploration blocks which we will be giving to private sector with an incentive scheme in place," he said.
He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
"We are going to empanel exploration agencies and then those exploration agencies will be given blocks for exploration. If they succeed in getting minable resources then...0.5 per cent of resource value they will get as incentives," Kumar said.

He added that about 50-60 blocks will be available to private sector under this new scheme.
"All the exploration cost we will recover back from the potential winner...We will make a payment from National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) fund so that there is no burden on the state for carrying out this exploration," he said, adding that government will carry out exploration through this new scheme.
"About Rs 400-500 crore would come every year under national mineral exploration trust," he said.