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To give a fillip to exploration of minerals in the state, the government is working on a mineral exploration policy.
The policy's priority will be on exploration of key bulk minerals like iron ore and bauxite. The state steel & mines department is making efforts to rope in Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd (MECL) to avail the PSU's proven expertise in the realm of exploration.
"We are working on a mineral exploration policy that will be finalised shortly. We are taking assistance from MECL. The chairman cum managing director of the central PSU has assured us that they are examining the possibility of opening a zonal office in Bhubaneswar," said a highly placed official source.
"Many mineral resources in the state are still unexplored and with the Government of India insisting on G1 level of exploration to establish proven mineral reserves, we need to take a serious view on exploration," he said and added that there are hardly 7-8 mines in the state that have achieved G3 level exploration while none falls in the G1 category.
The state government had suggested to the central mines ministry that insisting on G1 level of exploration to establish proven mineral reserve without any commensurate gin in insight into the present economic value of the resource, will only delay the process of auction and, consequently delay flow of economic benefits to mineral rich states. It had pointed out that the present value cannot be accurately fixed even after G1 level of exploration as it will be impossible to forecast the future market price for next 50 years with only reasonable confidence level.
Batting for immediate auction of mining leases, Odisha opined that bidding parameters need to be delinked from the estimated present value of 'proved mineral reserve'. Instead, it has suggested an upfront payment for auction which can either be in the form of lumpsum amount per hectare for each mineral or a prefixed amount equal to six per cent of the royalty on the entire balance estimated mineral reserve available in the area. Separately, the Odisha government is also examining the possibility of auctioning minor minerals. As many as 31 major minerals were classified as minor minerals recently by the Centre. While the Centre is empowered to form policies for major minerals such as iron ore, coal, bauxite and manganese, the state governments have been vested with the power to regulate minor minerals like dolomite, limestone, sand and gypsum.
