Lack of response forces govt to call off 4th round auction of critical mineral blocks

Government of India has cancelled the fourth round auction of mining blocks involving critical minerals dueto poor response.

Government has cancelled the auction of all 11 blocks containing critical minerals due to poor response from bidders. Of the 11 mineral blocks on offer in the fourth round, four blocks did not receive any response while there was only a couple of technically bidders for the remaining seven.

The mines ministry said the four blocks with deposits of tungsten and glauconite located in Arunachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh found no bidders.

Critical and strategic minerals, viz, Beryllium, Cadmium, Cobalt, Copper, Gallium, Indium, Lithium, Nickel, Rhenium, Selenium, Tantalum, Tellurium, Titanium, Tungsten and Vanadium, find applications in clean energy technologies, ranging from wind turbines to electric vehicles.

Earlier also the government had to cancel auction of critical mineral blocks, including 3 in third round and 14 each in the second and first rounds of auction due to poor response.

Out of 48 blocks of critical and strategic minerals put to e-auction in four rounds 24 have been sold, according to an earlier statement by the mines ministry.

Of these 4 were mining leases while 20 were composite licences, the ministry had said.

The government will be launching a `Critical Mineral Mission’ in the new year to secure vital resources for green energy and technology.

The mission will focus on government-industry collaboration in research, acquisition of overseas assets like lithium and cobalt, while also boosting domestic mining.

Global production of minerals, including lithium and cobalt, will have to increase by 500 per cent by 2050 in order to meet the growing demand for clean energy technologies, according to World Bank estimates.