Ministry of Mines proposes amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957; invites comments or suggestions from stakeholders by 25th June, 2022

The Ministry of Mines has proposed amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 with a view to bring about reforms in the mining sector.

In this regard, comments / suggestions are invited from the general public and relevant stakeholders, if any, which must be addressed to Shri Mustaq Ahmad, Director, Ministry of Mines, Room No. 313, D-Wing Shastri Bhawan, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road, New Delhi – 110001 in writing or by way of an e-mail at (jspolicy-mines@gov.in) with the subject, “Comments/suggestions on the proposed amendments to the MMDR Act, 1957” by 15th June, 2022. The Ministry of Mines however has issued a notice extending the date for submitting comments/suggestions on the proposed amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 till 25th June 2022.

Key Highlights:

• Introduction of new process of calculating – Average Sale Price ASP to reduce the effect of taxes: A new provision is proposed to be introduced on Average Sale Price (ASP) which would exclude GST, export duty, royalty, DMF and NMET and such other levies that are prescribed and must be applicable for all Mining leases (MLs) irrespective of being granted/auctioned before or after the commencement of the proposed Amendment Act;
• Mineral wise maximum area limit for mineral concessions will be fixed – Proposals to amend the provision relating to the maximum area limit for acquiring mineral concessions by a person in respect of any mineral in the prescribed group of associated minerals in a State and incorporate the recommended mineral-wise and State-wise area limits in the form of a Schedule have been suggested. Further, the Central Government must be empowered to revise the limits of the Schedule;

• No Forest Clearance required for Exploration – A provision is proposed to provide that any reconnaissance or prospecting operations undertaken within the specified period in a forest land is not considered as diversion of forest land for non-forest purpose under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. In addition to this the State Governments may prescribe the manner of granting permission for carrying out such reconnaissance or prospecting operations;
• No Central Government approval required for initiating auction for composite licences – It is also proposed to remove the requirement for obtaining prior approval from the Central Government for initiating auction for composite licence in respect of any notified minerals such as bauxite, iron ore, limestone and manganese;
• No restrictions in sale of annual production by captive miners – Captive miners must be allowed to sell 50% of their annual production without any restriction that is without meeting the requirement of the end use plant linked with the mine;
• Removal of some minerals from list of atomic minerals – The Amendment further proposes to removal some mineral such as Lithium bearing minerals, Niobium bearing minerals, Tantallium bearing minerals, etc. and empower the Central Government to auction concessions for critical minerals such as nickel, cobalt, cadmium, gallium in addition to the power of the State Governments.

Source: Ministry of Mines