Mines Ministry revises mineral auction rules to speed up mine development
The Ministry of Mines has amended the Mineral (Auction) Rules, 2015 to introduce intermediary timelines between the issuance of the letter of intent (LoI) and the execution of mining leases. The changes are aimed at reducing delays and ensuring faster operationalisation of auctioned mineral blocks. The revised framework sets milestone-based deadlines and allows corrective measures during implementation. For mining leases (ML), the mining plan must be approved within six months, environment clearance obtained within 18…