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As many as nine mineral blocks on auction, including two from Karnataka iron-ore plots, have received a good response, said Balvinder Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Mines, on Tuesday.
The bids for the first iron-ore in Karnataka were 90 per cent above the reserve price. In the second mine, the bids were almost 100 per cent over the reserve price, he said, adding that the government will be getting more than ₹25,000 crore by the way of royalties, etc over 50 years. “A total of seven blocks are also being put up to auctions by Karnataka and we expect a good response in these seven mineral areas,” Kumar said, while inaugurating an Assocham conference on ‘India Mining Summit 2016’.
On the issue of minimum import duty hike or minimum import price (MIP) for aluminium, Kumar said, “We are examining this matter in depth and two-three rounds of discussions have taken place with different segments of the aluminium industry. So, either we may go for MIP or alternatively increase the import duty but we want to develop consensus among the different segments of aluminium industry.
“We are working on it and in the next 15 days will take a decision on this issue.”
More auctions likelyBy this fiscal, a minimum 40-50 mining leases are to be auctioned by various States. As many as 15 category C mines were re-auctioned.
To check illegal mining across the country, Kumar said, “We are going to monitor all mining areas through satellite imagery. We will launch a mobile app where anybody can upload photo of illegal mining.”
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