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The Centre is looking at setting targets on offshore mining which will start this year, VL Kantha Rao, secretary at the Ministry of Mines said on Friday. He said that the result of the first round of auction of critical minerals will be out in 10 days.
“We also have goals on critical minerals under which two rounds of the auction process are going on and will get the results in the next ten days,” he said.
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At the ‘Indian Mining Industry’ event, organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), jointly with the Ministry of Mines, Rao said that Centre is also working to ensure that 100 per cent exploration of India’s geological potential of the country is done in the journey towards Amrit Kaal.
“We want to ensure that the entire country’s geology is explored both onshore and offshore, which currently is around 30 per cent,” he said. “We also have a target to ensure that underground mining increases in the country as a percentage of overall mining.”
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Rao told reporters that the auction of 10 offshore mineral blocks will start after the Lok Sabha elections and that India is looking towards Africa for minerals like cobalt.
“In Africa, we are looking at Zambia, Namibia, Congo, Ghana and Mozambique for critical minerals,” he said, adding that they are engaging with Australia for lithium blocks.
He also said that the lithium block in Jammu and Kashmir will now be auctioned again in the third tranche as it received only two bids in the first round. He, however, did not name the bidders.
Centre launched the third tranche of the auction of critical and strategic minerals earlier this month. A total of seven critical mineral blocks have been put up for sale. So far, it has launched an auction of 38 critical and strategic minerals.
Rao also said that the ministry has now started promoting and funding start-ups in the area of critical mineral-related technology development.
Bid to split Hindustan Zinc
Rao also told reporters that the ministry has rejected the proposal of Vedanta Group’s Hindustan Zinc Ltd to split the company into different entities.
“We have not agreed to the proposal,” he said.
Hindustan Zinc had earlier announced its plans to spin off business into separate entities to increase its market capitalisation. The company wanted to create separate legal entities for zinc, lead, silver, and recycling businesses.
“Whatever report we have in front of us we are not convinced as a shareholder,” Rao said. Notably, Centre owns a 29.54 per cent stake in the company.
