Govt cancels auction of 11 critical, strategic mineral blocks

  The government cancelled auctions of 11 critical mineral blocks due to poor investor response and insufficient bidders, dealing a setback to domestic exploration efforts amid rising global demand for strategic minerals like lithium and rare earth elements 

New Delhi: The government has cancelled the auction of 11 critical and strategic mineral blocks which were put on sale in the sixth round on account of poor investor response and lack of qualified bidders.

The development comes as a setback to the government’s efforts to ramp up domestic exploration and production of critical minerals amid global supply chain disruptions.

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In an annulment notice, the mines ministry said that the auction process for 5 mineral blocks was cancelled since no bids were received.

The notice further said the auction process of five other mineral blocks was annulled as there were less than three technically-qualified bidders.

Besides, auction process for Beku Rare Metal Block, West Bengal was also annulled.

The mines ministry had in September last year launched the sixth tranche of auction for 23 critical mineral blocks spread across 13 states.

The auction included 19 composite licence (CL) blocks and four mining lease (ML) blocks in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, and West Bengal.

The blocks contain strategic minerals including lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements, niobium, tantalum, and vanadium.

So far, six rounds of auctions have been completed, with 46 critical and strategic mineral blocks already sold, according to the mines ministry.

Critical minerals are pivotal for the country’s economic development and mineral security.

The global transition towards clean energy and advanced technologies has significantly increased the demand for minerals such as lithium, graphite, rare earth elements (REE), tungsten, vanadium, titanium and other rare metals.

Their limited availability and geographical concentration pose challenges to resilient supply chains worldwide.

The government has cancelled the auction of many critical minerals in the previous rounds of auction.