Mines

The Centre on Wednesday directed all states to expedite ongoing exploration projects, ensure faster approvals and improve coordination to significantly reduce exploration-to-auction timelines, a move aimed at bolstering the nation's critical minerals security amid global supply chain disruptions. Mines minister G Kishan Reddy also stressed the need to adopt advanced technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, drone-based surveys and modern beneficiation techniques, to increase efficiency and success rates in mineral discovery. The minister also stressed the greater inclusion of startups, private exploration agencies and innovation-driven institutions, in line with the vision of Startup India, to bring new ideas and cutting-edge solutions into the exploration ecosystem. Reddy chaired the 7th governing body meeting of the National Mineral Exploration & Development Trust (NMEDT), held here in the august presence of Minister of State for the Department ..

Ensuring that women are fully represented in the industries that power this transition is not only about equity. It is about building the strongest possible foundation for India's next phase of growth

Government offers 11 blocks of critical and deep-seated minerals across eight states under Exploration Licence regime to boost domestic mineral exploration

The Centre has notified coking coal as a critical mineral to speed up mining, attract private investment, and cut India's heavy dependence on imports for steelmaking

Government proposes cutting the timeline to operationalise newly auctioned mines to two years, drawing concern from the mining industry over approval delays

Tata Steel is boosting upstream options, expanding downstream capacity and improving efficiency to manage higher iron ore costs expected after its captive mines go up for auction in 2030

Over 1,000 residents in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district will be shifted to safer locations, following the incident of a "poisonous gas leak" from underground mines, officials said on Thursday. A woman allegedly died on Wednesday, while 12 people fell sick after carbon monoxide leaked from such mines in different places of Kenduadih Basti in the district, they said. The exact cause of the woman's death, however, is yet to be ascertained and it could only be confirmed after receiving the postmortem report, the officials said. Soon after the incident, the Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) started eviction of people from the danger zones, they said. The company also pasted notices on walls of houses in the locality, asking people to vacate at the earliest, an official said. BCCL's Putki-Balihati Colliery Area GM G C Saha told reporters that three ambulances have been kept on standy in the basti to deal with any emergency situation. The company is making arrangments to shift the residents to

The police have booked the owner of Krishna Mining Works and his business partners, Madhusudan Singh and Dilip Keshari, both residents of Obra

The Supreme Court has ruled that mining cannot take place within one kilometre of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, extending earlier directions to all protected areas

The Ministry of Mines has proposed amendments to allow mineral block auctions to proceed with two technically qualified bidders instead of three to improve success rates

A woman labourer has found eight diamonds, which could fetch her lakhs of rupees, at a mine in Madhya Pradesh's Panna district, an official said on Saturday. Rachna Goldar, a local resident in her 50s, found eight precious stones with a total weight of 2.53 carats, six of which are of high quality, the official said. Diamond expert Anupam Singh said, "The biggest diamond weighs 0.79 carat. Besides, two stones are off-colour." He said Goldar deposited the stones at the district diamond office, from where they will be put up for auction, and are likely to be worth several lakh rupees. Goldar, mother to three grown-up children, had taken a mining lease in the Hazara Mudda area and found the stones while digging. She expressed hope that the auction proceeds would improve her financial condition. In Panna, an eight-metre mining plot is leased for Rs 200 annually. Diamond auctions are held every three months with traders from across the country participating. The final auction price i

CM Mohan Yadav said Singrauli's rare earth element reserves will make MP a hub for critical minerals, reducing India's reliance on China and boosting self-reliance in key technologies

Chinese battery manufacturer announced internally that the Jianxiawo mine would be halting operations temporarily, the report said, adding that affiliated refineries in nearby Yichun had been informed

A joint team from the NDRF and the Bharat Coking Coal Ltd started a search operation to rescue miners allegedly trapped during illegal mining in an abandoned coal mine in Jharkhand's Dhanbad, officials said. The operation by a 35-member squad of the NDRF and a 15-member BCCL mines' rescue wing began around 11.30 am, after a futile attempt to search for the miners late on Thursday evening. Meanwhile, confusion continues over the alleged mine collapse incident at the Block-2 closed underground mines of BCCL at Baghmara, with several leaders claiming muiltiple deaths in the incident. The NDRF was mobilised on Wednesday after Giridih MP C P Choudhary staged a dharna at Baghmara police station, demanding immediate rescue operations at the spot. "The MP has pointed out three spots as suspected sites of trapped persons. Search operation has started at one of the spots and other locations would come under its ambit soon," Baghmara police station officer in-charge Ajit Kumar said. The ...

Mines are rated on mine-level impact management, progressive mine closure and restoration, social welfare, and reporting, with three mines receiving seven-star ratings for their exceptional practices

Revised assessment cites breach of mineral rules and shortfall in dispatches from Sukinda Chromite Block; Tata Steel plans legal action against the demand

About Rs 3,000 crore was spent during the last three years by coal mine operators on progressive mine closure in the country due to the efficient work by the Coal Controller, said a senior official on Friday. Addressing the Indian National Committee of the World Mining Congress (INC WMC) here, V L Kantha Rao, Secretary, Ministry of Mines, also said that when it comes to the non-coal sector, the Controller General of the Indian Bureau of Mines is ensuring that all 1,200 mines are undertaking progressive mine closure. "They (Coal Controller) have ensured that in the existing, there are about 500 coal mines, and people have spent about Rs 3,000 crore in the last three years on progressive mine closure. That's a big achievement, and all the credit goes to this Coal Controller who has ensured that people spend not only at the end of the coal mine but also every five years," Kantha Rao said. He further said that in the case of non-coal, the state governments have been a bit slow in carryi

The auctions aim to expand coal production capacity, replace depleted mines and ensure long-term energy security as India targets net zero via diversification

In recent years, the number of fatalities has come down as the government has cracked down on illegal rat hole mining

Nine workers, aged between 26 and 57, became trapped when water inundated the mine, believed to be the result of damaging an underground water source during excavation