Kolkata | Oct 18, 2016: The Union Ministry of Mines plans to incentivise mining exploration to make it more attractive to private players and will issue an advertisement for empanellment of exploration companies, a top official said here on Tuesday.

"We want to incentivise this system. We want modern technology to come in exploration of huge areas. The incentive to private players will be 0.05 per cent of resources or up to 10 times of annual retention fee whichever is higher," said Secretary from Ministry of Mines Balvinder Kumar.

“We are going to bring about massive changes in exploration regime. SBI Cap is our consultant. They are working on technical and financial parameters under which we are going to advertise,” he said.

The official also said vast swathes of restricted land have been opened to mining and exploration due to relaxation in approval system of the Defence Ministry.

“They have relaxed their approval system and now we will get all the clearances from the Ministry of Defence expeditiously and they have also opened up vast areas which so far were restricted due to security reasons. So barring small areas (such as certain border areas in Rajasthan, Punjab) all territories have been put on the map,” Kumar said.

In the past year mineral production has increased significantly, Kumar informed.

“This year (2016-2017), there has been a growth of 32 per cent in iron ore and last year there was a nine per cent growth in minerals,” he said.

Kumar said states have been asked to implement the satellite-based mining surveillance system (MSS) for minor minerals.

"We have asked them to implement the MSS with respect to minor minerals. Haryana, Telangana have already started and we have requested other states," he added.

(Source: http://www.indialivetoday.com/)