The Government is keen on further opening up the mining sector through a provision that will allow a licensee to sell the mining licence after completion of exploratory operations.

“Under the proposed new regulations, one can get a licence to explore an area for locating mineral deposits and on locating the target, the licensee can sell the licence for extracting the minerals, instead of being forced to carry on the entire spectrum of mining operations,” Mr G. Srinivas, Joint Secretary (Minerals and Regulation), Government of India, said.

This provision has been included in the new Bill on Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation, which is slated to be introduced in Parliament in the next session.

“One of the objectives of the new regulations is to encourage exploration. As of now, we do not have a precise idea of the mineral wealth India is having. We would have hardly undertaken exploration to the extent of 2-3 per cent of the total mining potential area,” he told media persons on the sidelines of a conference on mining here on Friday. The mining sector contributes about one per cent to the GDP, while in advanced countries, it is at about 7-8 per cent, he pointed out.

India currently produces about 87 minerals, including four fuels, 47 non-metallic and three atomic minerals. By last fiscal, there were about 2,628 operational mines, excluding minor minerals, petroleum, natural gas and atomic minerals, out of which just 11 States together account for over 91.9 per cent of the total operational mines. Since April 2000, the sector has attracted FDI inflows of $478 million. India has estimated 123 billion tonnes of recoverable mineral reserves remaining to be exploited.

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