New Delhi | Sept 06, 2017: The government plans to expedite the auction of non-coal mines to stimulate a flagging economy.

Top officials of the mines ministry have held meetings to finalise their plans for the auction, which they hope to hold within this financial year.

These mines include major minerals such as iron ore, bauxite and limestone, said officials. Mines in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Bengal will be auctioned.

Several Indian and foreign players are believed to be interested in the auction, which was earlier slated for November last year. The auctions have to be held by individual state governments or by a few states together.

Officials said they were in touch with the states to speed up the process.

Mining leases already auctioned so far have fetched a cumulative resource value of around Rs 1,22,000 crore.

Officials said they were also working to amend the Mineral Auction Rules, 2015, to make the bidding simpler.

The minimum net worth to participate in the e-auctions is likely to be lowered by half to bring in more bidders. At present, a company must have a net worth of at least 2 per cent of the value of the mine. This is being halved, said officials.

Companies will also be discouraged from sitting idle on the mines after winning the bids as they will be given fixed timelines to develop the mines and start operations. Also in the offing is a move to reduce the number of minimum technically qualified bidders to two from three for bidding to proceed.

Earlier this month, the government annulled the fifth round of coal mine auction because of a tepid response.

In a notice, the government said, "The tender process for the coal mines being auctioned under the 5th tranche has been terminated in accordance with Clause 3.3.2(b) of the tender document".

Around six mines put up for auction were withdrawn as steel makers, who are the main buyers, were in financial distress.

The mines ministry is, however, confident that it will succeed in the mineral auctions.

Officials said they had already facilitated the auction process by getting support from IBM, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and various PSUs such as MSTC, Mecon, MECL and SBI Cap.

India had earlier come out with a new mineral exploration policy that encourages e-auction of both mining licences and exploration blocks identified by the GSI for exploration.

(Source: https://www.telegraphindia.com/)