New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha approved the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill today, allowing it to pass Parliament. The Bill was already approved by the Lok Sabha. The Bill will support the private sector’s efforts to explore for important and deeply buried minerals.
The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, which governs the mining industry, is amended by the Bill. The introduction of exploration licences for deep-seated and important minerals is one of the Bill’s main amendments. Within the deep-seated group of minerals that includes gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, nickel, cobalt, and platinum, diamond exploration is both challenging and costly.
In order to promote, encourage, and reward private sector involvement in all areas of mineral exploration for important and deeply buried minerals, an exploration licence has been proposed. Six minerals will also be removed from the list of 12 atomic minerals under the terms of the bill. These minerals are essential to India’s ambition to achieving net-zero emissions since they have a variety of uses in the space industry, electronics, communications, energy sector, and electric batteries.
Governmental organisations are only permitted to harvest and explore certain minerals since they are listed as atomic minerals. The mining and development of certain minerals will become available to the commercial sector as soon as they are taken off the list.