India sets sights on critical minerals with law tweaks

New Delhi: The government will likely seek this week Parliament approval for amendments to the mining laws, aimed primarily at allowing state funding for acquisition of overseas critical mineral assets.

The proposal has received the necessary approvals within the government and the Bill to amend the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act may be moved in Parliament as early as Monday, a senior official told ET.

The government is proposing to fund such acquisitions from collections accrued in the National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET). The trust currently has more than ₹6,000 crore in its corpus, collected from mining lease holders who need to deposit 2% of the applicable royalty with it.

Boosting Supply Chain

This trust will also be renamed to include ‘development’ in its name, signifying its expanded mandate to cover exploration, acquisition and development of critical mineral assets abroad as well.

ET reported in January that fresh amendments are likely to be made this year to the MMDR Act, aimed at boosting critical mineral supply chains. The Act was last amended in 2023.

“The amendment will address the core issue of critical mineral raw material availability,” the official said.

Besides financing fresh acquisitions, the Centre is seeking to allow disposal of mineral dumps through lump sum sale from captive mines.

“There are a number of captive mines where huge dumps of minerals have been accumulated which are not usable due to its low grade or unsuitability for the plants,” the official said. Inputs from state governments indicate that more than half the mineral produced is not usable in the captive end-use plants, he said. Existing rules governing captive mines do not allow the disposal of such dumps.

The proposed changes will empower states to permit sale of dumps stacked in the leased area on payment of an additional amount, the official added.

Regulations are also proposed to be simplified to include newly discovered minerals and contiguous areas to an existing mining lease for a fee. The lease holder for a deep-seated mineral resource may be able to apply for extending the permit to include a contiguous area. This would be a one-time facility and the enhancement would be capped at 10% of the existing leased area.