Mineral Hunt Plans Of Two Foreign Firms Cleared

The ministry of mines has cleared five proposals by two foreign companies for mineral prospecting in the country.

In a statement issued yesterday, the ministry said four approvals had been given to BHP Mineral India (P) Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of of BHP Minerals of Australia, to conduct aerial prospecting in northern Rajasthan state for copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver.

The total area covered under this would be about 8,379.20 sq km (3,234 sq miles). The ministry also cleared the proposal of CRA Exploration India (P) Ltd to prospect for copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver in an area covering 1,915.12 sq km area in Ajmer and Kishenganj districts of Rajasthan.

 

CRA is supported by RTZ-CRA, the worlds largest exploration and mining company.

Last year, the government announced policy guidelines to grant large areas for prospecting licences and speed up investments in the minerals sector.

Under the guidelines, the normal area limit of 25 square kilometres now available for prospecting licences has been relaxed upto 5,000 square kilometres and the total aggregate area that can be held by a single company cannot exceed 10,000 square kilometres spread over the whole country.